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THE CITY OF 



MADISON 



The Capital of Wisconsin— The Seat of the State University — , 

The County Seat of Dane County ] 



Prepared especially for use in the Citp Schools 
To give Information about our City; Show its Advantages and Oppor- 
tunities; Forecast its Growth; Point out Civic Ideals and 
Duties; and Awaken Civic Love and Loy- 
alty in our Young People. 




BY 

FRANK A. GILMORE, 

Minister First Unitarian Society 



Issued and Copyrighted bg the 
MADISON BOARD OF COMMERCE 



■Ml (^29 



MADE IN 



MADISON 

w 



DEC 26 1916 



Blied Printing Co., 
Madison, Wis. 



CI.A453241 



MADISON OUR HOME III 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

I. HISTORICAL. 

a — Prehistoric Period — the Indians 1 

b — Historic Period — Sketch of City's History 12 

Coming of the Pioneers 13 

Madison Chosen to be the Capital 15 

Beginnings 16-19 

Chronological Outline 19 

The Civil War 28 

Noteworthy Achievements Since 1900 36 

II. THE PRESENT. 

Location and Surroundings 47 

Longfellow's Poem 51 

Racial Elements 53 

Organization and Government 55 

Political Relations. 

The City and Madison Township 59 

The City and Dane County 59 

The City and the State of Wisconsin 61 

The City and the Federal Government >. 62 

Chief Institutions in the City 65 

Federal 66 

State 67 

County 73 

Municipal 73 

Semi-public 77 

Private 79 

Industry and Trade 81 

Manufactures: Service Rendered to the City 83 

Middlemen: Distributors 85 

Retail Business 87 

Taxation: Rents and Pl-ices 93 

Trades Unions 96 

Transportation 97 

By Water 99 

Street Cars 100 

Bus Lines 101 



IV MADISON OUR HOME 



Education. 

Public School System 101 

Private Schools 103 

Statistics of Education 103 

Libraries 105 

Art 106 

Recreation 108 

Indoor— Public 109 

Indoor — Private Ill 

Outdoor— Public 113 

Outdoor — Private 116 

Recommendations for Improvement of Recreation 118 

Religious and Moral Forces 119 

The Home 120 

The Church 120 

School Life 123 

Fraternal Orders 123 

Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A 124 

Associated Charities 124 

Day Nursery 125 

Dental Clinic 125 

Woman's Club : 125 

Catholic Woman's Club 125 

Attic Angels 125 

Juvenile Court 126 

Humane Society '. 126 

Business 126 

The University .' 126 

Civic Ideals 126 

The Community Mind 127 

Safety of Life and Property 127 

A Healthy City 128 

Law and Order 132 

Transportation 134 

City Ordinances on 135 

Encouragement and Protection of Business 137 

Cleanliness and Beauty 138 

A Larger and Better City 141 

How Young People Advertise Madison 144 

III. THE FUTURE. 

Need of Taking Thought for the City's Growth 147 

Extension and Development for the Next Half Century 148 

Flat Showing Region of Growth 149 



MADISON OUR HOME V 

A City Plan 151 

City Plan Board 152 

Scope of its Work 153 

Recent Building- Ordinance 153 

Building Districts 154 

Future Possibilities for a More Beautiful City 155 

A City Plan — General Features 156 

Advantages of Such a Plan 157 

Commission Form of Government 157 

What This Would Mean for Madison 158 

Appreciation of Our City Officials 159 

The Youth of Madison to Determine Its Future 160 

What Madison Do6s for Its Children and Youth 160 

Value of Juvenile Element 162 

Safeguarding the Home 162 

What Madison Provides for the Education of Its Young 

People 163 

Chances to Buy Things 168 

Institutions Peculiar to Madison 168 

Distinguished Citizens — Deceased 169 

Distinguished Citizens — Living 171 

Stimulating Atmosphere of Madison 171 

Accessibility of County and State Officials 172 

The City's Claim Upon Its Young People 178 

What Some Citizens Have Done to Show Their Regrard for 

Madison 173 

What We Can Do for Our City 176 

Madison Asks Her Children to Care for Their Bodies 176 

Effects of Tobacco and Alcohol 177 

Politeness and Courtesy 179 

Spirit of Serviceableness 179 

Beautifying the City 180 

City Improvement Clubs 181 

Practice of Thrift 187 

Honesty 188 

Clean Minds in Clean Bodies 188 

Taking Thought of the Future 189 

Self-Support 190 

Madison, the Alma Mater to Us All 192 



VI MADISON OUll HOME 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Indian Mounds 2 

First Home in Madison 17 

Mrs. L. M. Sawin, (nee Brayton), First School Teacher 

in Madison 21 

Pinckney Street, 1856 — Sixth Ward and Lake Monona; in 

Center Distance, Home of Gov. Farwell, Later Home of 

Soldiers' Orphans 26' 

Chart of City Government 60 

Federal Building 63 

Forest Products Laboratory, the Only One in the U. S 66 

Birds-Eye View of Campus 70 

The Campus 71 

From Lake Mendota .--. 71 

Madison Free Library 74 

Madison General Hospital 78 

St. Mary's Hospital— Catholic 80 

Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Depot 98 

Father Pettit Parochial School 104 

Office Gisholt Manufacturing Co 107 

Directed Play — Burr Jones Field. 114 

Children's Gardens 117 

The Tank, Lathrop Hall— Univei-sity Naiads 118 

Extension of City in Next Half Century 149 

The Randall Public School 165 

State of Lincoln by Adolph Weinmann 178 

Neglected Back-yards 184 

What Can be Done with Back-yard Spaces? 186 

The Alice Freeman Palmer Memorial, Wellesley College, 

Mass 191 



MADISON OUR HOME VII 



PREFACE 

In authorizing this book and paying for its writing and 
publication, the Madison Board of Commerce believes that it is 
carrying out its fundamental purpose of civic usefulness. The 
manuscript has been submitted to several representative people, 
including members of the School Board, who have given valuable 
suggestions and expressed approval of its aim and contents. 

Prepared primarily for school use, these pages contain mat- 
ters of interest to all our citizens. The hope is entertained that 
it will meet with popular favor and enjoy a somewhat large cir- 
culation in Madison, as also among non-residents who may 
desire such information as is here given. 

I have been obliged to abbreviate ; to condense and summar- 
ize. Which will explain why many things have only been men- 
tioned, and many others which belong in any complete account 
of the city, have been omitted. The space of these pages could 
be filled with a description of our great University; and an equal 
space devoted to the subject of Madison's trade and industry. 
The rapid growth of these recent years has made it difficult 
to keep even a record of new developments; references to which 
may be found in the City Directories. 

For its use in the public and parochial schools it is recom- 
mended that the teachers treat the book as a suggestive guide 
rather than as a final authority. Some of its statistics are not 
quite up-to-date and many of its statements will need yearly 
revision. The common school text book method of question and 
answer has been used very little; yet the general plan and 
outline of the subject will, we trust, be pedagogically helpful. 

For the Board of Commerce. 

Frank A. Gilmore. 
November, 1916. 



VIII MADISON OUR HOME 



SIX DIVISIONS OF THE BOOK 



1. HISTORICAL SKETCH. ; 

2. THE PRESENT: ELEIMENTS IN THE LIFE ' 

OF THE CITY. ; 

3. THE FUTURE. ' 

4. WHAT MADISON OFFERS TO ITS CHIL- \ 

DREN AND YOUTHS. : 

5. ITS (rLAm UPON OUR LOVE AND LOY- ! 

ALTY. ; 

(;. WHAT WE CAN DO FOR OUR CITY. i 



Historical Sketch 

A. — Prehistoric Period — The Indians. 



Before the white men came the red men lived here. 
You remember how Christopher Columbus called 
these people Indians because he thought he had dis- 
covered India on the continent of Asia, in 1492. Along 
the shores of our live lakes the Indians built their 
lodges of bark and skin, planted their gardens, caught 
fish in the streams, and hunted in the forest. 

Can you imagine how Madison appeared in those 
far-oft: days? There was not a single house; not a 
road, or a horse or wagon, or machinery of any kind. 
All these things so familiar to us were unknoAvn to the 
Indians. Yet they were busy and happy in their own 
way. They lived in families with father, mother, and 
children. They called their children "papooses.'^ 
Eacli papoose was given a name. Some of these were 
very pretty and expressive. A boy would be given the 
name of some small bird or animal. When he grew 
up he was given a name which signified bravery or 
cunning, such as ''the bear,'' ''the black wolf," "the 
fox"; the Indian maidens were called "the wren" 
''Avild rose," "honey suckle." Several families com- 
bined formed a clan. Each clan had a "totem" which 
distinguished it from the other clans. A totem is 
some object such as an arrow or spear ; or some bird, 
lish, or animal; or one of the elements, air or water, 
which each member of the clan looked upon with reli- 



2 MADISON OUR HOME 

gious reverence. Some Indians tatooed these totems 
on their bodies; others painted them on their lodges. 
Here in the region where Madison stands the Indians 
built up the soil, smoothing and rounding it off to 
represent these clan totems. These are the effigy 
mounds which we have all seen on the University 




INDIAN MOLNDS 



MADISON OUR HOME 6 

grounds, at the Merrill Springs, Mendota Asylum, 
Vilas Park, and other places. Can any of the chil- 
dren tell something of these mounds? They are of 
great interest to historical students as works of the 
stone age. The stone age means the time when men 
used no iron or other metal but made all their weap- 
ons, tools, and utensils out of stone or wood. 

The grouping of several families made an Indian 
clan. Several clans combined to form a tribe. Each 
tribe had one or more chiefs to lead in hunting or 
war. These chiefs were chosen for their bravery, 
strength, and skill in council. The Indians had no 
kings. A chiefs son might become a chief in his turn 
only by proving that he was a brave and clever man. 
The Indian tribes dwelling in this region were 
called Winnebagoes. There is a large lake of this 
name not far from Madison. Winnebago villages 
stood on the north shore of Lake Mendota, at Morris 
Park and Fox Bluff; on Mendota Hospital grounds; 
on Winnequa Heights across Monona Lake; along 
the northAvest shore of Lake Waubesa ; and in several 
other places. 

In Fuller's woods, on the road leading to Lake- 
Avood and Maple Bluff are a number of large Indian 
mounds. Close your eyes to the present and try to 
(►pen them upon a Winnebago village in Fuller's 
woods. A cluster of huts stands among the trees. 
The huts are made of bark fastened on long, slim 
poles, one end stuck into the ground, the other bent 
over into an arch ; the whole resembling the ribs of an 
umbrella. Covered with rushes it made a very good 
tent. It kept out rain and provided a home for a 



4 MADISON OUR HOME 

family. Is it not strange to think of a family living 
all tiie 3' ear round in such a home? But they knew 
nothing about the large and convenient houses in 
wliicli people live now. 

It was a morning in spring and the Indian chil- 
dren saw the lake sparkling in the sun just as we 
do; they saw tlie same trees and wild flowers, the 
shooting stars and wild geraniums; they heard the 
same notes of robins, cat birds, blue jays, and king- 
tishers. The Avild pigeons were very plentiful then 
and came in great flocks. On this particular morning 
a party of boys set off in their light birch-bark canoes 
to cast their net for fish at the Yahara stream. A 
party of girls accompanied by an older squaw, each 
with a bark basket, walks away to the meadow to find 
roots. We notice their curious dresses of bark and 
skins, Avitli ornaments of small shells on strings, and 
colored porcupine quills on leggings or skirts. Two 
men are squatted on the ground chipping flint stones 
to make arroAV and spear points. On the ground a 
new deer skin is stretched and fastened with w^ooden 
pegs, while a squaw rubs and scrapes it smooth with a 
stone scraper. A group of several squaws is seated 
on a knoll beneath a very large linden tree. Some are 
cutting deer skins into patterns while others sew 
them into leggings and moccasins. They use small 
thorns to make holes. Their needles are of bone and 
the thread, the sinews of the deer. Several squaws 
kneel over a fire heating stones. These hot stones 
are dropped into a wooden dish containing water; 
soon the water boils and cooking commences. 

A shout is now heard coming from the lake. Three 



MADISON OUR HOME 5 

canoes approaeli, bringing families from a village at 
Fox Bluff. Some of these belong to the Turtle Clan, 
some to the Panther. Among many savages the wife 
must have a different totem from the husband's, and 
this may have been true of the Wisconsin Indians. 
They find friends who have the same totems, and by 
whom they are welcomed as they reach the shore. 
This arrival sets the entire village in commotion. 
Some open a cache of corn — a pit several feet deep 
wherein the corn was stored and kept throughout the 
winter; others bring smoked venison, dried fish, 
acorns and wild rice. A soup is made at the fire in 
which all these are boiled together and set bofore the 
visitors. They must eat it all; to leave even a drop 
in one's dish was regarded as the height of discour- 
tesy. It would be something like a man wearing his 
hat in church. In eating, each Indian uses a bark 
bowl which he dips into the kettle, then seats himself 
on the ground, drinking off the liquid portion, and 
using his fingers to take out the meat. 

After the meal they all walk back among the trees 
where the totems have been fashioned out of the soil, 
and where we can still see them just as they were left 
by the red men so long ago. At these mounds, 
meetings are held with ceremony and ritual. We may 
think of them as something like those of modern fra- 
ternal and social societies, such as the Masons, Wood- 
men, Knights of Columbus, and the Odd Fellows; or 
as exhibiting the same feelings and purposes we may 
think of such clubs as the Elks, the Moose, and the 
Beaver. In their meetings the rites probably recalled 
their dead kindred and friends. They believed that 



G MADISON OUR HOME 

the spirits of good Indians went, at death, to the happy 
hunting grounds, where storms and frosts never came, 
and where game was plentiful. The spirits of mean 
and cowardly Indians would go to a dismal place 
where they would be condemned to beat dirt with a 
club and eat loathsome food. If not wicked enough 
for this punishment they might go to the happy hunt- 
ing grounds, but only to make bows and spears for 
the spirits of brave hunters and warriors and to carry 
the game which they killed. 

They buried their dead, especially the bodies of 
their chiefs and medicine men, on the high places, 
heaping the earth over them. Sometimes other bodies 
would be laid on this low mound, and more earth 
placed upon them. In this way several layers of 
bodies would be placed in one large mound, and this 
is the way they are found when opened today. Such a 
mound is called a ^'tumulus'' and looks like a large, 
inverted bowl. Some are eight feet high and sixty 
feet in diameter. One is on the crest of Eagle 
Heights; two in Morris Park, north shore of Lake 
Mendota; one on the high ground near the spot where 
the Yahara leaves Lake Monona. And when we look 
on these grassy hillocks we should remember that the 
people who made them felt exactly as we do when we 
visit the cemetery Avhere the bodies of our loved ones 
are at rest. 

With the body was placed a spear, moccasins, and 
food. These articles were supposed to have souls. So 
the soul or the spirit of the spear and moccasins would 
be taken by the dead Indian to the happy hunting 



MADISON OUR HOME 7 

grounds, far to the west — the region of the setting 
sun. 

Such was the life of the Indian people who lived 
where Ave dwell. They had many virtues such as hos- 
pitality and endurance. It was unmanly to show 
fear or to weep. Yet they loved their wives and their 
children and would die to defend them against an 
enemy. When a hunter came home with game it was 
shared by the people of the whole village. The best 
men were chosen as chiefs. Wisdom and experience 
were honored; even the squaws sometimes sat at the 
council fires; and some tribes had squaw chiefs. 

Compared with civilized people the Indians lacked 
many things. They had no iron, though some tribes 
had a few implements pounded or cut from raw cop- 
per. They could not make good gardens without 
plows and hoes. They did not know how to build 
houses. Their weapons were bows, spears, clubs and 
stone axes; though with these simple and poor arms 
they killed buffaloes, bears, and panthers. To make 
fire they rubbed together dry sticks, and preserved 
the fire for long periods; to carry a load they put it 
on their backs. They had no horses, cattle, swine, 
sheep, or poultry; their only domestic animal was the 
dog. 

But their great deficiency was that they had no 
writing. This is referred to in the Song of Hiawatha 
by Henry W. Longfellow : 



"Lo! how all things fade and perish 
From the memory of the old men 
Pass away the great traditions. 



8 MADISON OUR HOME 

The achievements of the warriors, 

The adventures of the hunters, 

All the wisdom of the Medas * * *." 

Great men die and are forgotten. 

Wise men speak, their words of wisdom 

Perish in the ears that hear them. 

Do not reach the generations 

That, as yet unborn, are waiting * * *." 

Such knowledge of history as the Indians po^ 
Bessed soon faded away. They reckoned time by 
^^moons" and their oldest memory of events seldom 
cohered more than a century. They had no way of 
preserving such knowledge in books as we do. They 
did, however, make some attempt to preserve a knowl- 
ledge of the past by rude pictures drawn on skins and 
by notches cut in wood. These were made and kept 
by the ^^record keepers" of the tribe. 

We call the red men savages because they had not 
invented these things. They were not a progressive 
race; each generation lived like all the others. We 
call white people civilized because they know how to 
make houses, machinery, and ships; they print books 
and preserve them in libraries ; they makes discoveries 
and inventions such as railroads, telephones. X-rays, 
and aeroplanes. Civilized races are progressive; each 
generation possesses the knowledge of former times 
and adds many new inventions. 

Civilized people can do a thousand times more 
with a country than savages can. Here in Wisconsin 
the poor Indians could never have developed the state 
as the whites have. The Indians could only get a 



MADISON OUR HOME 'J 

bare living ; they roamed over the country to find their 
food. All this time the riches of the soil, the resources 
and the wealth of the forests, the mines and the wa- 
ters were here; but the savages did not have the key 
and never would have found it. If the whites had 
not taken possession, our state would undoubtedly 
be in the same undeveloped and backAvard condition 
that it was when the Winnebagoes built their wattled 
huts "in Fuller's woods. 

This is why we justify the white people for taking 
lands of the Indians. They could not use them as 
these lands were capable of being used. The whites 
could so use them as to support millions of people, 
to build cities and railroads, mills and factories, 
schools and churches. Yet we cannot help feeling 
sympathy for these red people, who must have felt 
very unhappy to see the w^hite men taking the land 
where they had lived so long and where their ances- 
tors were buried. 

Black HaivJc Wai\ 

In 1832 Black Hawk, a famous Sac chieftain, led 
a band of Indians across the Mississippi River to Illi- 
nois. They marched up the valley of Rock River fol- 
lowed by white troops. A battle was fought at Still- 
man's Run, and the whites were badly defeated. Black 
Hawk advanced northward; several white settlers 
were murdered and the whole region was alarmed. 
More troops were sent in pursuit. Black Hawk 
reached Lake Koshkonong ; but, learning that a large 
body of troops were after him, he began his retreat 
northwest towards the Wisconsin River. The white 



10 MADISON OUR HOME 

forces soon discovered liis trail and began an eager 
pursuit. On the 20th of July, 1832, Black Hawk and 
his band — ^warriors, women and children with horses 
and camp baggage, passed over the present site of 
Madison. They crossed the Yahara River near the 
Williamson Street bridge, kept along the low ground 
in sight of Lake Monona, then bent to the north, 
skirting the Capitol Park about where Johnson Street 
now runs; then over University Hill and toward Mid- 
dleton. That night the white soldiers camped on the 
Indians' trail on the east side of the Yahara. Next 
morning, the 21st of July, they took up the pursuit. 
Near the Yahara they saw an Indian skulking in the 
bushes and at once shot him. Before they had gone 
far, another was seen. This one was not trying to 
escape ; he sat still and made no attempt to run away 
or defend himself. He was shot. Then the white men 
saw that the poor creature had been sitting so calmly 
on a new made grave — probably the grave of his wife. 
But the white people were so angry at the Indians 
because they had been killing and scalping white men 
and women that they were resolved to kill any one 
belonging to the Black Hawk band. 

So hotly did they follow the trail that they came 
to the Wisconsin River at dusk of that same day. The 
Indians were trying to cross the river, and a battle 
took place at Wisconsin Heights in the town of Rox- 
bury. One white man and several Indians were killed. 
A few days later as Black Hawk sought to cross the 
Mississippi River at a place called Bad Axe, the white 
soldiers came upon him and killed many of his peo- 



MADISON OUR HOME 11 

pie. Black Hawk escaped, but was soon captured and 
kept prisoner for some time. 

So we see that our city — or the land where it now 
stands — ^was related in a very interesting way with 
the famous Black Hawk war of 1832. 

Not far from the north end of University Hall on 
the upper campus stands a granite boulder Avith a 
bronze tablet. This commemorates the march of Black 
Hawk's band across the grounds of the University. 
In the museum on the top floor of the State Historical 
Library Building is a large collection of Indian relics. 
Here we can see the stone arrow and spear points; 
the drills, scrapers, and axes; w^eights for the fish 
nets, and many other things. Most are made of stone; 
some of bone and copper. Every one should visit this 
very valuable collection where ever so many interest- 
ing things are to be found besides those mentioned 
here; and not the least of them is the portrait of the 
renowned chief Black Hawk. 

School children have all read the story of Hia- 
watha and Minnehaha, the scene of which is laid not 
so very far from Madison. At the falls of Minnehaha, 
between St. Paul and Minneapolis, is a statue of Hia- 
watha carrying his bride across the stream. Why 
could not the school children of Madison raise money 
to place a similar statue in one of our city parks? 

For many years the red men w^ere familiar figures 
in .the early days of this city, riding single file on their 
ponies through the streets or pitching their tepees 
along the shore. Gradually they have been confined 
to their reservations in the north parts of the state. 



12 MADISON OUR HOME 

and are seen now only when a group is brought down 
to attend the United States Court. 

^^Alas, for them, their day is o'er, 
Their lights are out from shore to shore, 
No more for them the wild deer bounds. 
The plow is on their hunting grounds." 

B — The Historic Period. Sketch of the city-s history. 

Just as we all like to read about the childhood 
of famous men — such as stories of Washington's or 
Lincoln's boyhood — so we want to learn about the 
beginnings of our city. 

The Indian name for the region of our five lakes 
was Taychopera. We have no record of white men 
in Taychopera before the year 1828, four years before 
the Black Hawk war. Jefferson Davis who became 
President of the Southern Confederacy in the Civil 
War was stationed at Fort Crawford, Prairie du 
Chien, as an army officer in 1828. He tells of visiting 
the site of Madison in that year and of seeing an 
Indian village on the height across one of the lakes. 
This was probably at Winnequa. No white people 
came here to remain until 1836, the year that Madison 
was chosen to be the capital of Wisconsin. 

The white troopers who had visited Taychopera 
in pursuit of Black Hawk were greatly pleased with 
the locality and told people about it when they went 
home. Settlers were attracted to this region for three 
reasons : 

1. The land was unoccupied and cheap. It would 
make good farms and there was plenty of timber. 



MADISON OUR HOME 13 

2. There was no further fear of the Indians. 

3. Madison had been named as the Capital of the 
state and the seat of the University ; it was therefore 
certain to become an important place. 

Learning these things about the new city, people 
in Ohio, Michigan and New York sold their farms 
and started with their families for the "far west" as 
they called Wisconsin in those days. Some came on 
the Great Lakes to Milwaukee and rode or walked the 
eighty miles to Madison (when there Avas no road yet 
made ) . Others came all the way in covered wagons. 
How interesting such a journey must have been! 
Father, mother and little folks all living in a big 
wooden wagon called a "prairie schooner," covered 
with canvas to shade them from the sun and keep out 
rain. Usually several families came together. Some 
were drawn by horses, others by oxen, and as they 
wished to keep together the plodding oxen set the 
pace for the march. There were carts loaded with 
plows, harrows, hoes, axes, and grain and seeds of 
various sorts. They brought cattle, sheep, and poul- 
try. The party kept together for company and because 
of possible danger from wild animals or Indians ; the 
men and larger boys carried guns — old flint locks like 
those in the Historical museum. Game was not 
scarce, so they had wild turkeys, prairie chickens, 
pigeons, and deer to help out the food they carried 
with them. 

In those old days the roads were mere cart tracks, 
and for long distances not even these; so that they 
rode over the open prairie or among groves of oak, 
then called "oak openings."' When they came to a 



14 MADISON OUR HOME 

difficult place where the rough track ran through a 
swamp, the wagons would stop; the men would take 
their axes and fell small trees, cutting them into 
pieces five or six feet long. These were laid down 
across the muddy track forming a "corduroy road" 
over which the wagons passed to dry ground. If they 
came to a stream which could not be forded, two large 
tree trunks would be laid across from bank to bank, 
on which another "corduroy road" was laid. What 
fun the children had as the big wagons bumped and 
jostled over the logs, the wheels creaking and the 
great kettle which hung from the rear axle, swaying 
like a pendulum! At night they w^ould camp near a 
creek or spring of good water. The wagons were 
drawn in a circle with the cattle, sheep, and poultry 
inside; horses tethered to the wheels and given their 
feed; a large fire at the center w^here each mother 
brought her kettle and frying pan. Soon all were 
seated around, eating supper. Besides such game as 
they could shoot, they had for food, beef, pork, pota- 
toes, bread, eggs, coffee, tea and sugar ; and there w^as 
honey, bread, and milk for the children. After sup- 
per would come stories, songs, and plans for the next 
day. During the night some of the men stood guard 
while the rest slept; the men on the ground, the 
women and children in the covered wagons. 

So they slowly followed the western trails till they 
came to Dane County. Some built homes in Madison ; 
others settled on the prairies not far away, getting 
the land from the United States government at $1.25 
an acre. 



MADISON OUR HOME 15 

While most of the first emigrants came from Ohio, 
Michigan, and New York, there were others who drove 
their lumbering prairie schooners a thousand miles, 
from far away New England. These pioneers were 
energetic, bold, self-reliant folk ; they were ambitious 
to better their fortunes; they had visions of the 
future. 

*^Axe in hand and gun on shoulder 
Through the wilderness they came: 

. Through the brush and over boulder 
To the land without a name — 

"For they heard a spirit call them 
And they might not pause to rest : 

Fearing naught that might befall them 
For they fared upon their quest." 

— Horatio G. Winslow. 

Madison Chosen To Be the State Capital. 
First Settlers. 

The year 1836 is an important one for our state 
and for our city. In April of that year Wisconsin, 
then a part of Michigan, was set apart as an indepen- 
dent territory with the right to choose a legislature, 
enact laws, and select a location for its capital city. 
The following October the first session of the legisla- 
ture of our new territory met at Belmont in La Fay- 
ette county. They selected the site of Madison to be 
the capital, giving it the name of the honored James 
Madison, fourth President of the United States (1809 
— 1817) whose death occurred in that same year — 
1836. An oil painting of the rough little building 



16 MADISON OUR HOME 

which housed this first meeting of the legislature is to 
be seen on the wall of the Governor's reception room 
in the new state capitol. 

At that time there were no white people living 
where Madison now stands, and there were but five 
in all of what is now Dane County. There was a tiny- 
settlement at Blue Mounds w^here lived Ebenezer 
Brigham, the first white man to settle there, and with 
him lived Eben Peck and his family. When the news 
came that the site of Madison had been chosen for 
the capital, this Mr. Peck determined to remove here 
with the idea of opening a house of entertainment for 
the accommodation of visitors and workmen. He pur- 
chased some lots and erected three log houses all 
connected together. This primitive tavern was styled 
the "Madison House.'- It stood on what is now No. 128 
S. Butler Street. It was put up in the winter of 1837, 
and on April 15th Mr. Peck, with his wife Rosaline, 
and a two-year-old boy, Victor E., arrived on the 
scene, the first white family in Madison. Mr. Victor 
E. Peck died in Madison in 1916. His father, Eben 
Peck, went to California in 1845, and is supposed 
to have been killed by Indians on the plains. His 
mother died in Baraboo at the advanced age of ninety- 
three. In this same winter, 1837, Mr. John Cat- 
lin, who had already been appointed postmaster of 
the embryo city, employed a half-breed named St. 
Cyr, who had a trading shanty near Livesey's Spring, 
to build a log house on the spot where the Post-ofi&ce 
now stands. This structure was put together in the 
month of February — the first attempt to get a per ma- 



MADISON OlUl HOME 



17 




18 MADISON OUR HOME 

nent building here — but it was not roofed and finished 
until summer, so that Mr. Peck's log hotel on S. But- 
ler Street was the first inhabited house in Madison. 
It stood from 1837 to 1857; its location ought to be 
plainly marked with a neat and suitable inscription. 

On the morning of June 10th, 1837, Building Com- 
missioner Bird arrived from Milwaukee with thirty-six 
workmen. They had been ten days on the road or rather 
on the journey, for there were no roads, and they 
had to ford or swim every creek and river. This party 
erected a log boarding-house on the corner of Butler 
and Wilson Streets not far from the Peck's Tavern. 
In this party came Dawin Clark, as one of the car- 
penters; he afterwards taught in the village school. 
Simeon Mills arrived at the same time having walked 
from Chicago via Janesville. These two men, Clark 
and Mills, were long prominently identified with bus- 
iness and educational interests in Madison. 

July 4th, 1837, the corner-stone of the first Capitol 
A\as laid. It stood on the same place — Capitol Park 
— where the present new Capitol has been built. 
Most of the stone was quarried from the north side 
of Maple Bluff and brought across the lake in large 
wooden scows to the foot of N. Hamilton Street. The 
inside finish of the first Capitol was sawed from tim- 
ber growing on the hill where the Governor's resi- 
dence now stands; the saw-mill was on the site of 
Conklin's ice-house. 

The place grew but slowly at first. There were 
no railroads and wagon roads were few and poor. For 
the first two years there were not over one hundred 
people in Madison. In 1840 there were only one hun- 



MADISON OUR HOME 19 

dred and forty-six. Then they came more rapidly 
and by 1850 there were 1,672 inhabitants. 

The first child born here was appropriately named 
Wisconsiana Peck, daughter of the first family to set- 
tle in Madison. The first store stood on King Street, 
The early storekeepers had a hard time in getting 
their goods. These were brought by team from Milwau- 
kee (at that time a place of 1700 souls), or purchased 
from the peddler's carts. Money was scarce. In one 
of the early newspapers the editor wrote : "wood, prod- 
uce, or anything else usable about a house will be 
taken in payment." Social life was simple. New 
Year's Day 1851, the gentlemen hired a carriage and 
visited every family in the village. At long intervals 
a theatre company came, and remained for months, 
playing its entire repretoire, in a hall over Jehu 
Lewis' store on what is now 223 Wisconsin Avenue. 
Members of the Legislature often brought their fami- 
lies and remained through the session. One member 
from the northern settlements came all the way on 
snowshoes. 

Hotels were built and newspapers started; frame 
houses multiplied; stores, schools, and churches were 
opened ; then came the telegraph and the railroad ; the 
University had been opened, and by 1860 Madison 
was a prosperous community of 6,000 people. 

For convenience the principal events in our city's 
growth may be given in the following chronological 
order : 

1836 — Madison chosen to be the Capital at the first 



20 MADISON OUR HOME 

meeting of the Territorial Government, Octo- 
ber 25tli in the crude village of Belmont, at 
Platte Mound, in what is now La Fayette 
County. At this same session twelve counties 
were set off, including Dane. Several locations 
in the state desired to become the capital, such 
as Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Platteville. The 
choice of Madison was a compromise between 
the conflicting claimants and a concession to 
its central location. 

1837— Log buildings put up at 128 S. Butler Street 
and on the post-office site. First dwellings 
erected in Madison. Eben Peck and family 
remove from Blue Mounds to Madison and 
open Peck's Tavern (three log cabins united) 
at 128 S. Butler Street. Corner stone of Capi- 
tol laid July 4th. The building cost |60,000, 
of which 140,000 was given by the United 
States, $16,000 by Wisconsin territory and 
|4,000 by Dane County. Postoffice opened and 
first mail delivered in one end of Peck's Tavern. 

1838 — The American House, first hotel, built on the 
site of the First National Bank. 
First white child born, Wisconsiana Peck. 
First school opened in one end of Isaac Pal- 
mer's log house, south corner King and Clymer 
Streets. The teacher was Miss Louisa M. Bray- 
ton, after whom the Bray ton School (third 
ward) is named. Her salary for teaching the 
rudiments to a dozen or fifteen children was 
$2 per week, one-half of which she spent for 
board. It is a remarkable fact that the first 



MADISON OUR HOME 21 

school teacher in Madison is still living here 
— Mrs. L. M. Sawin (nee Bray ton) at the ven- 
erable age of 100 years (1916) ; almost the 
sole survivor of that time. 




MRS. L. M. SAWIN (NEE BRAYTON), 

FIRST SCHOOL TEACHER 

IN MADISON 

A newspaper, "The Wisconsisn Inquirer" 

started. 

Census shows a population of sixty-two. 

"There were not more than a dozen houses 

counting every cabin and shanty within three 

miles of the Capitol.'' 



22 MADISON OUR HOME 

1839 — Dane County organized and a regular tax laid 
on all property for schools. 
First school house built on the northeast cor- 
ner of N. Pinckney and E. Dayton Streets; a 
tiny frame structure, 18x20 feet, costing $70. 
It soon became crowded and a wide plank was 
put up across one end for the smaller children 
who went ^^up on the shelf" by a short ladder. 
Benches were made of slabs from the saw mill 
(site of Conklin's ice houses), flat side up and 
supported by pegs. David A. Wright, who 
died in Madison in 1916 at the age of 96, taught 
this school in 1844. Among the big-eyed little 
fellows who once sat on that upper shelf w^ere 
several who are now grey-haired, aged citizens. 
First sermon preached in Madison by the Eev. 
Solomon Stebbins, Methodist. 
First Sunday School meets in the new school 
house; Wood's brass band practices there. 
Census shows a population of 146. 

1840 — Miss Clarissa Pierce opened a ^'Select School 
for Young Ladies" in a small frame building 
which had been put up on Capitol Park as a 
tool house and ofifice for the workmen. It was 
merely a box 12x16 feet and stood on the park 
just across from the State Bank, S. Pinckney 
Street. Here the first village debating society 
held its meetings. 

1841 — Madison set apart as a separate school district 
and called "District No. 1, Town of Madison." 

1842 — Census gives 172 inhabitants, a gain of only 
26 in two years. 



MADISON OUR HOME 23 

1843 — First Catholic service conducted by Father 

Martin Kundig. 
1844 — Census gives a population of 216. 

Madison Lodge F. & A. M. instituted. 

First German evangelical services conducted 
by Rev. G. W. Miller. 

1845 — The "little brick" school house built on site of 
present third ward school; stood 1845 — 1887. 

1846 — By an act of the Legislature, Madison was in- 
corporated as a village. The settlement was 
now nine years old; more people were coming 
in ; the census gave 626 inhabitants. The fol- 
lowing quotation helps us to visualize condi- 
tions at that time. "Three-fourths of the vil- 
lage site was covered with trees and hazel- 
brush, and everywhere w^as in a crude condi- 
tion. The village pigs slept at night in the 
cellars of the Capitol and the park itself was 
a mere jungle. People left their doors and win- 
dows unfastened, because there was little 
worth stealing, and thieves and tramps had 
not made their appearance.-' 
"Postage was twenty-five cents for a letter of 
a single sheet." 

"Not more than half a dozen houses had been 
erected north and west of Capitol Square." 
"The Legislature met every winter and brought 
people from all parts of the state. There was 
a deal of horse-play, hard drinking, and pro- 
fanity, with an occasional fight during the heat 
of debate. Madison was the political center of 



24 MADISON OUR HOME 

the state and travelers often filled the crude 

hotels to overflowing so that beds were made 

up in the lofts.'' 

This year the first church was erected by the 

Congregationalists. It still stands at No. 15 

S. Webster Street. 

First cemetery opened; three and one-half 

acres in sixth ward, now Orton Park. 

1847 — ^First bell hung in steeple of church on S. Web- 
ster Street. 

The Female Academy building erected on site 
of the present High School; stood from 1847 
1854. 

1848— Odd Fellow-s lodge established. 

Wisconsin Territory becomes a state. 
The telegraph reaches Madison. 
First circus comes; "the legislature adjourns 
thereto without the formality of a vote.'' 
Beginnings of the University of Wisconsin; 
college preparatory courses opened in the Fe- 
male Academy. 

1849 — Governor L. J. Farwell removes to Madison 
and begins to advertise the city by descriptive 
pamphlets and newspaper articles, calling at- 
tention to its attractions. 
State Historical Society organized. 

1850 — Census reveals rapid influx of people; total 
population now 1672. 

First Catholic church erected — St. Raphael's, 
on site of present building. First parochial 
school opened by St. Raphael's parish, this 
year. 



MADISON OUR HOME 25 

Market quotations in Madison from a letter 
written at this time: Meats — 2 to 4 cents a 
pound; butter — 5 to 8 cents a pound; eggs — 
5 to 6 cents a dozen. 

1851— Population 2,306 ; of school age 503. 

1852 — First Methodist church built, corner N. Pinck- 
ney and E. Mifflin Streets (where Piper's store 
stands). 

State Journal begins as a daily. 
Population 2,975. 

1853 — First bank opened ; the State Bank, on its pres- 
ent location. 

Baptist church built on the spot now occupied 
by the Telephone Building, N. Carroll Street. 
New people in great numbers arriving. Popu- 
lation this year 4,029. 

1854 — First railroad train reaches Madison coming 
from Milwaukee via Milton Junction over 
what is now the Chicago and St. Paul line. 
2,500 people came in 32 coaches; Milwaukee 
fire companies rode on flat cars; there was a 
grand procession around the Square, followed 
by a dinner and speeches in the Park. This 
was in May. 

St. RaphaeFs church (present edifice) built. 
University of Wisconsin graduates its first 
class of two. 
Population 5,126. 

1855 — The newspapers report this ^^a banner year ; 
350 buildings erected this season, and 1,000 
since 1847." 
Madison village set apart from the Town and 



26 



MADISON OUR HOME 



..J 




MADISON OUR HOME 27 

incorporated into separate, self governed 
school district. Board of Education organ- 
ized. 

Horace Greeley, Bayard Taylor, and James 
Kussell Lowell lecture in Madison. 
Lake Side Water Cure built on what is now 
Monona Park. It was destroyed by fire in 
1866. 

Grace church, Episcopal, erected. 
Population reaches 6,863, a gain of more than 
1,700 in one year. 
Streets first lighted by gas. 

1856 — Madison becomes a city with Jairus Fairchild 
as mayor. The city is divided into four wards, 
the division lines being the four main avenues. 
City Police Court instituted. 
Two voluntary fire companies organized. 
$6,887 voted to purchase school lots in the 
four wards. Total costs of schools this year, 
$4,334. 

1857 — Holy Eedeemer church. Catholic, built. 

German Evangelical Lutheran Church built. 
First Congregational Society built brick church 
on W. Washington Avenue. This is now the 
Sunday School room and chapel. 
Public school houses erected in first and third 
wards. 

A financial panic is felt at this time all over 
the United States. Madison is affected; build- 
ing is put off, and the city's growth stops. 



28 MADISON OUR HOME 

1858 — ^Forest Hill cemetery opened. Mr. Deming 
Fitch (still living in 1916) was the first Su- 
perintendent, serving from 1858 to 1896. 
The city buys the Female Academy building 
and grounds for High School site. 
Grammar school opened in Greenbush. 
City Hall opened to the public. 
First militia companies organized: The "Gov- 
ernor's Guards/' "Madison Guards/' and the 
"Dane Cavalry." 

1859 — A bill was introduced in the Legislature to 
remove the Capitol to Milwaukee. The break- 
ing of a tie vote alone saved Madison. The 
closeness of the vote had a depressing effect 
upon public feeling. This, together with the 
"hard times," effectually put a check on the 
city's growth. 

1860 — Catholic cemetery opened. 

The census gives a population of 6,611, show- 
ing loss of 252 in the five years past. 

1861— 1865— The years of the Civil War brought our 
city to public attention. During this period 
there were 91,327 total enlistments from Wis- 
consin; and of this number, 70,000 were in 
quarters at various times in Camp Randall. 
The first company in the state to offer its 
services to the governor was the "Madison 
Guards" — Geo. E. Bryant, captain. On April 
16, two days after Fort Sumpter in the harbor 
of Charleston, S. C, had fallen, and the news 
came rushing over the land that "the flag has 
been fired upon," Governor Randall of Wiscon- 



MADISON OUR HOME 29 

sin accepted the services of the Madison 
Guards. And two days later he accepted the 
services of the other militia company here, the 
"Governor's Guards.'' Our city was thus the 
first in the state to enroll her citizens for the 
great conflict. 

There were 1157 enlistments during the war 
from the city and township of Madison. Of 
these 171 died in the service. There were or- 
ganized and drilled in Camp Randall, twenty- 
seven regiments; tw^o batteries of light artil- 
lery; nine companies of heavy artillery; and 
one company of sharp-shooters. The presence 
of so many men enlivened the city. Almost 
everybody was employed in some way by rea- 
son of their presence; food and fuel, lumber, 
hardware, and grain were supplied to the sol- 
diers by Madison dealers. "Long files of the 
boys in blue often marched through the streets 
w^ith drums beating and colors flying. Mass 
meetings were held in the Capitol to bid fare- 
well to regiments going to the front or to 
welcome the home-returning veterans. The 
women organized relief corps and sanitary com- 
mittees; fairs were held to raise money for 
supplies and comforts to be sent to the soldiers 
at the front." It w^as a busy and soul-stirring 
time for the little city. 

E'very Madison boy and girl should know about 
the two groups of graves at Forest Hill Ceme- 
tery. In one rest 184 of the Union dead. Close 
by is another where lie the bodies of 136 Con- 



30 MADISON OUR HOME 

federate soldiers, who died wliile prisoners of 
war at Camp Kandall. At the close of the w^ar 
Mrs. Alice W. Waterman came from the South 
to live here. She it was who caused the plot of 
Confederate graves to be ornamented and all 
the graves marked; and as the years went on 
added improvements to the ground as far as 
her means permitted. She died in Madison 
Sept. 12, 1897, and her body rests among those 
whom she called her ^'boys.'' 
The newspapers record the erection of "a large 
number of dwellings and business blocks and 
several fine residences'' in 1863. 
This year workmen began to tear down the 
first Capitol. 

In 1864 the record is: ^^business good and a 
number of desirable improvements made." One 
of these improvements was the arrival of the 
Chicago and Northwestern Railroad line from 
Beloit, thus connecting Madison with Chicago 
for the first time; and the launching on Lake 
Monona of the first steam boat, the ^^Scutanaw- 
bequon." This vessel must long since have 
gone to "Davie Jones' locker." We know but 
little about her, but she could not have been 
much longer than her name, and we hope a 
great deal easier to manage. In 1865 there 
were "numerous and valuable improvements" ; 
the most notable being the remodelling of the 
home of Ex-Governor L. J. Farwell into a 
Home for Soldiers' Orphans. This institution, 
the first one of its kind to be established in the 



MADISON OUR HOME 31 

United States, was founded through the ef 
forts of Mrs. L. J. Harvey, the wife of Gov- 
ernor Harvey. She received the commission 
for the orphans' home from President Abra- 
ham Lincoln. The institution accomplished a 
noble work in caring for and educating the 
children of the dead soldiers. The building 
stood at the lake end of S. Brearly Street. It 
was demolished some years ago, but its site is 
marked by a granite boulder bearing a bronze 
tablet. The cost of this tablet was met by the 
school children of Madison. 

1865 — At the close of the war the census showed a 
population of 9,191; and the general prosper- 
ity of the city is shown by the manufacturing 
done in 1865. It amounted to |333,856 ; con- 
sisting of iron and farming tools, clothing, 
flour, tin ware, beer, coal gas, cabinet ware, 
boots and shoes. 

Jewish Synagogue on W. Washington Avenue 
built. 

German Evangelical Association erects its 
church. 

1866 — The second Capitol, partly finished, is opened 
to the public. 

The Fourth of July celebration this year was 
a national rejoicing at the return of peace. 
The greatest throngs ever in the city came on 
that day. "Twenty thousand were on our 
streets; three thousand coming by train from 
outside cities and towns." A procession of war 
veterans bore the state's battle flags, followed 



32 MADISON OUR HOME 

by the militia, soldiers' orphans, and fire com- 
panies. 

The University acquires a large tract of land 
for agricultural experimentation. 
Madison purchases its first steam fire engine. 
Lucius Fairchild post, Grand Army of the Re- 
public organized; it has the distinction of 
being the oldest post in the United States. 

1867 — The first pipe organ; it is placed in Grace Epis- 
copal Church. 

The first steamboat to ply on Lake Mendota; 
the ^^City of Madison." 

Shipments by railroad from the city this year ; 
512,071 bushels wheat: 1,035,300 pounds 
dressed hogs. 

1870 — Another attempt in the Legislature to remove 
the Capitol. By the census of this year Madi- 
son had a jDopulation of 9,173. This is a loss 
of eighteen for the five years, 1865 — 1870. The 
after effects of the war while favorable to many 
cities in the North, were not so for the Capital 
of Wisconsin. Hundreds of her men had gone 
into the army; nearly two hundred died in 
the service, while others came home debilitated, 
or with amputations and wounds. The result 
was the breaking up of families, and the re- 
moval of many from the city. The movement 
of population set toward places like Chicago, 
Milwaukee and St. Paul, w^here it was thought 
the opportunities for manufacturing and gen- 
eral business were greater than in Madison. 
In this year the value of Madison's real estate 



MADISON OUR HOME 33 

was 12,500,000. Personal property, |1,260,- 
000. There were eight school houses: these 
valued with their grounds at |84,000. Num- 
ber of pupils in school, 956. 
Park Hotel opened. This large house was built 
to meet the criticism that Madison could not 
accommodate the members of the Legislature; 
one of the reasons urged for removing the Cap- 
itol to Milwaukee. 

1871 — Post-office building erected; for the post-office 
and for offices of United States Judge and 
other Federal officers. 

Kailroads are extended from Madison to Bar- 
aboo on the Chicago and Northwestern; and 
from Madison to Portage on the Chicago and 
St.' Paul. 

St. Regina Academy is built. 
Chadbourne Hall opened. 

1872 — Society of the Army of Tennessee meets in 
Madison; 7,000 visitors in the city. General 
Phil Sheridan, General Pope, Secretary of 
War, Jeremiah Belknap, present. The proces- 
sion is in charge of Colonel William F. Vilas 
of Madison. 

1873— '^Over |300,000 this year for new buildings" 
says a local paper. The old Female Academy 
used for the city High School since 1854, was 
demolished and a ucav High School built on 
the same site. 

1875 — Madison Free Library opened in city hall; 
librarian Miss Virginia Bobbins. Madison was 



34 MADISON OUR ho:me 

the first city in Wisconsin to open a free 

library. 

Population, 10,093. 

1876 — The Centennial year. Professor John B. Par- 
kinson in charge of the Wisconsin exhibits at 
the exposition in Philadelphia. 
Ole Bull, the famous violinist, gave a concert 
for the benefit of the art gallery of the Univer- 
sity. 

1878 — Telephones first installed here. 

Eutherford B. Hayes, President of the United 
States, with Mrs. Hayes visits Madison, and 
addresses a great gathering at Camp Randall. 

1880 — General Assembly of the Presbyterian church 
brings delegates from all parts of the country. 
General Ulysses S. Grant visits the city. 
Population, 10,324. 

1882 — City water works opened. 

Dane County Court House built. 

1883 — First free delivery of mail in the city. 

1884 — Opening of street car lines; cars were drawn 
by mules. 
Matthew Arnold lectures here. 

1885— Population, 12,064. 

1886 — Dane County buildings in Madison completed; 
jail and sheriff- s house. 
First Unitarian church erected. 

1887 — Grover Cleveland, President of the United 
States, with Mrs. Cleveland visit William F. 
Vilas at his home in Madison. Col. Vilas was 
then Secretary of the Interior in President 
Cleveland's cabinet. 



MADISON OUR HOME 35 

1888— St. Patrick's cliuixli built. 
1890 — Fuller Opera House opened. 
Monthly liorse market begins. 
Population, 13,426. 
1891 — Henry M. Stanley, African explorer, lectures 
here. 

Christ Presbyterian Society erect new house 
of worship on corner Wisconsin Avenue and 
W. Dayton Street. 
Elmside suburb opened. 
1892 — Electric cars first used on our street railway. 
Lake Mendota Drive (the western) drive 
opened. 
1893— Masonic Temple erected. The building was 
formerly the Presbyterian church. 
University Heights lots put on the market. 
Labor Day first observed here. 
City installs electric fire alarms. 
1894 — xVrmory opened at the University. 

Western Canoe Assocation holds its annual 
meeting on Picnic Point. 

Cornelia Vilas Guild Hall, connected with 
Grace Episcopal Church, is dedicated. 
1895 — National Convention of Modern Woodmen 
brings some 20,000 visitors. 
Columbian Catholic Summer School holds first 
session here. 
Population, 15,590. 
1897— Farw^ell Drive opened over Maple Bluff to 
Mendota Hospital. 

Street car line extended to Wingra Park and 
the cemeteries. 



36 MADISON OUR ho:me 

Dr. Nansen, arctic explorer, lectures. 

First use in Madison of concrete for curbing 

and gutters. 
1898 — Schal census, total of school age, 5,388; total 

enrollment, 2,895; number of teachers, 61. 

Value of school property, |250,000. 

President McKinley visits the city. 

City sewerage disposal plant opened. Before 

this most of the sewerage of the city ran into 

the lakes. 
This brings our record down to the year 1900. 
The story of the past fifteen years is one familiar to 
most of us and may be summarized under the follow^- 
ing heads. 

I. Creation of Parks, Playgrounds, and Drives. 
Prior to 1900 w^e had but one small park, Orton 

Park, in sixth ward. We now have the following: 

Water 

Acres Frontage 

1. Brittingham Park 27 4,370 ft. 

2. Burrows Park 12 550 ft. 

3. East Monona Park 6 5,000 ft. 

4. E. Wash. Ave. Parkway .... 10 

5. Elmside and Hudson Park. 5.1 2,000 ft. 

6. Henry Vilas Park 62.6 6,000 ft. 

7. Kendall Park 1.5 

8. Monona Park (Assembly 

Grounds) 30 1,350 ft. 

9. Orton Park 3.6 

10. Owen Parkway 6 

II. South Madison Boulevard. 5 4,800 ft. 



MADLSON OUR HOME 37 

12. Spring- Harbor 1 270 ft. 

13. Spaight Street Park 1.5 600 ft. 

14. Tenney Park 44.2 3,800 ft. 

15. Washington Oval .9 

16. Wingra Monona Parkway . 33 6,000 ft. 

17. Yahara Parkway 16.9 7,200 ft. 

Playgrounds. 

18. Burr Jones' Field 1.5 

19. Olive Jones' Field 1.5 

269.3 41,945 ft 
To these may he added 

20. Capitol Park 14 

21. University Grounds 990 11,000 ft. 

1,273.3 52,945 ft. 

Thus there are twelve hundred and seventy-three 
acres with a water frontage of ten miles now held 
open to the public of Madison for park and play- 
ground use. Some of this land lies beyond the city 
limits, but within easy reach of street cars, autos, 
and boats. These park lands are connected by a series 
of well made pleasure drives. 

This truly splendid work was occomplished by 
the Park and Pleasure Drive Association with which 
the city government has co-operated. More than 
$300,000 has been expended, and a new interest and 
pride has been awakened among all our people. Credit 
for this achievement belongs especially to Mr. John 
M. Olin whose enthusiasm, knowledge, and enterprise 
awakened an interest and gave the association its 
first momentum. 



38 MADISON OUR HOME 

Valuable tracts of land to be used for parks have 
been given by Professor E. T. Owen and b}^ the late 
George Burrows. Large donations in money for pur- 
chasing land and for park improvements have been 
made by the late Col. Wm. F. Vilas, the late W. W. 
Warner, the late Daniel K. Tenney, and the late Halle 
Hteensland; also by Mrs. Anna Vilas and Mr. T. E. 
Brittingham. All these donors have long been Madi- 
son residents. 

2. Street Improvements. 

A marked improvement in the city streets has 
followed the development of the parks and drives. 
Carroll Street, University Avenue, State Street, Lang- 
don Street, Fair Oaks Avenue, Sherman Avenue, and 
Randall Street, and the streets around tlie Capitol 
Square have been paved with asplmlt, the best ma- 
terial known for giving a smooth, hard surface. Some 
12,000,000 has been expended on this Avork. 

3. Increase in Building. 

There has been steady growth in building and an 
improvement in architecture. Noteworthy among tliese 
are public edifices, sucli as, the new Capitol, tlie His- 
torical Library, the City Free Library, and tlie two 
new railroad depots — the Chicago and Northwestern 
and tlie Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul R. R.'s. 
Many large modern Avareliouses like tlmt of tlie T. S. 
Morris Company, the L. L. Olds Seed Co., the Gould, 
Wells & Blackburn Co., the Kleuter Co. and jMadison 
Storage Co. New factories are represented by the 
Gisholt Co., Fort Wayne Electric Co.,. Badger Shoe 



MADISON OUR HOME 39 

Co., Scanlon-Morris Co., French Battery Co., Madi- 
son Plow Co., and the Beet Sugar Factory. 

Churches and church buildings erected within the 
past fifteen years are St. KaphaeFs, St. Patrick's, St. 
Bernard's, and St. James' Catliolic Parochial Schools; 
Christ Presbyterian Church; Unitarian Parish House 
and Parsonage; Luther Memorial Chapel; St. Paul's 
University Chapel, Catholic; Pilgrim and Plymoutli 
Churches, Congregational; St. Andrew's Episcopal 
Chapel; Italian, Catholic; Synagogue, Jewisli, and 
Westminster Chapel, Presbyterian. 

Other new buildings are: 

Three printing plants — Grimm's, Cantwell's and 
State Journal. 

Three hotels — Cardinal, Washington, Park. 

Theatres — The Orpheum and twelve moving pic- 
ture houses. 

The Gay Building of nine stories. 

Many apartment houses, (some containing 35 
apartments. ) 

Thousands of new residences. 

Four banks — Merchants, Commonwealth, Secur- 
ity State, and Randall. 

Enlargements and improvements of existing 
banks, stores, and printing liouses, and tlie addition 
of several new ones. 

These things indicate a growing spirit of civic 
pride and the awakening of a better taste among our 
people; which is further seen in tlie improved appear- 
ance of our private grounds, lawns, and gardens, and 
in the movement started by the Madison Board of 



40 MADISON OUR HOME 

Commerce to prevent throwing paper and waste mat- 
ter into the streets and gutters. 

Noteworthy architectural improvement is evident 
in the character of new dwelling liouses — particularly 
the numerous bungalows. 

4. Extension of City Limits. 
The city limits have been extended to include sub- 
urban district — such as University Heights, Win- 
gra Park, Highland Park and West Lawn, on the west ; 
Greenbush, on the south; Fair Oaks, Washington 
Park, and Madison Square on the east. 

5. Growth in Population. 
The population has more than doubled. These 
figures give the growth of Madison since 1836 : 

1855 6,863 

1860 6,611 

1865 9,191 

1870 9,176 

1875 10,003 

1880 10,323 

1885 12,064 

1890 13,426 

1895 15,590 

1900 19,164 

1853 4,029 1905 24,301 

1854 5,126 1910 25,531 

1915 32,000 

This figure, 32,000, is the estimated population 
living witliin the city limits proper. These lines are 
purely artificial and cut through the center of dis- 



1837.... 


3 


1838.... 


. . . . 62 


1840.... 


. ... 146 


1842.... 


. ... 172 


1844.... 


.... 216 


1846.... 


.... 283 


1847.... 


. ... 632 


1850.... 


. . . . 1,672 


1851.... 


....2,306 


1852.... 


....2,930 



MADISON OUR HOME 41 

tricts which are contiguous to the city, and which 
form Avith it a single community. People living in 
South Madison, Nakoma and Lakewood are in truth 
Madisonians; they number about 1,200. Then there 
are 7,000 students attending the University and living 
in Madison. These figures combined make the popu- 
lation over 40,000. 

6. Growth of Public Schools. 
Comparison of the two lists given below will show 
this at a glance: 

1900. 1915. 

Number of buildings 10 13 

Total enrollment 3,055 5,081 

Teacliers 68 188 

Salaries |36,585 |156,900 

Total cost of schools for the year. .|G4,500 |237,691 

'New Courses — 

1900. 1915. 

Drawing Domestic Science 

Music Manual Training 

Supervised Athletics and 
Physical Training 
Kindergartens — 

One in 1900 and eight in 1915. 

New Developments — 
Play Grounds 
Evening Schools 
Summer Schools 
Use of School Buildings for 
Community Meetings. 



42 MADISON OUR HOME 

Tlie ueAV High Scliool costing |250,000 built in 
1908; more than 1,000 pupils are enrolled, making it 
the largest High School in the state with a single ex- 
ception. It is worth recalling that on the proposal to 
bond the city to meet the expense of this new^ High 
School, the women of Madison exercised their right 
to vote on questions of education. The matter was 
carried to the State Supreme Court Avhich decided 
that the vote Avas legal and should stand. The part 
which Madison women took in that election gave us 
the new High School. 

Public education here has also been extended by 
the establishment of vocational and continuation 
schools under the direction of the State Board of 
Industrial Education. 

7. Expansion of the University. 
From 2,170 students in 1900 to 7,727 in 1915. In 
this time 900 acres have been added to the lands of the 
University; the funds available for its use for all pur- 
poses have arisen from |675,700.00 to |2,758,000.00; 
Lathrop Hall, Barnard Hall, the Biology Building, 
Wisconsin High School, Forestry Building, Cliemistry 
Building, Heating Plant, Agricultural Hall, and Stock 
Pavilion have been erected. 

8. City Enterprises. 
NeAV sewerage disposal plant built to care for a 
city of 50,000 population, and which can be progress- 
ively enlarged. The enlargement and extension of the 
water system. New fire engine houses; new motor 
fire engines and ladder trucks. Garbage incinerator 
plant. 



madison our home 43 

9. Improvement in the Street Car System. 

More cars, running time sliortened, line extended 
to Fair Oaks, South Madison, Wingra Park, and tlie 
cemeteries; one interurban line being built. 

10. Further Evidences of Madison^s Growth. 

Increase in post-office receipts from |88,000 to 
$276,000; bank deposits, |3,992,502 to $11,277,535; 
value of real estate from f 8,500,000 to f 52,000,000. 

Three new liospitals: City General, St. Mary's, 
and Stoeber, private. 

Memorial Arch erected at Camp Randall in mem- 
ory of tlie soldiers. It stands on the location of the 
old gate through which the soldiers passed when 
bivouaced on these grounds during tlie Civil War. 

New industries and lines of business in fifteen 
years : Union Transfer and Storage Co., Hospital Sup- 
plies, Electrical Apparatus, Plow Factory, Beet Su- 
gar Factory, Soap Factory, Seed Warehouses, Dairies, 
Brick Factory, Shoe Factory, Tobacco, Gasoline and 
Oil Engines, Machine Tools, Horse Collar Pads, Sad- 
dlery, Dry Batteries, Agricultural Implements, Ce- 
ment Stave Silos, Chemical Laboratories, Meat Pack- 
ing Plant. 

Madison is now eighty j^ears old ; sixty 3- ears have 
passed since she came of age and was made a city. 
Her story is one of rather slow but substantial gTOwth. 
She has never had what is called a "boom" ; neither 
lias she suffered a relapse or a collapse which some- 
times follows a "boom". No calamities have come 
upon her — no great fire to consume her wealth; she 
has never had a flood nor a cyclone. Strikes never 
seriously interfered Avith normal business or stopped 



44 MADISON OUR HOME 

the city's growth. She has been proud of herself as 
the seat of the Legislature and of learning; of the 
beauty of her natural surroundings, and of her citi- 
zens who have brought honor to their city, and won 
distinction for themselves in literature, education, 
and in business, in state craft and in the army. She 
lias not been an aggressive city; making little effort 
to advertise herself to the Avorld, but has been rather 
self centered, satisfied and complacent. 

The consequence has been that the city as a whole 
is not well known or understood by the general pub- 
lic. Beyond the borders of Wisconsin it is known 
cliiefly for two things — ^the Capitol and the Univer- 
sity'. Her reputation rests upon what the state has 
done for her more than upon what she has done for 
lierself. The work of our Park Association has, we 
may believe, inaugurated a new era; an era in which 
the city is to become known to the American public 
for her varied forms of industry and trade; her many 
institutions private as well as public ; her steady gain 
in population, wealth and civic pride; the attractive- 
ness of her natural location and surroundings — in a 
word, it is to become known as a place to which people 
are invited to come and enter business and make their 
homes. 

In tlie eighty years of her life we may say that 
the city has been brought to the attention of the gen- 
eral public three times. When the site was chosen 
to be the capital the news went over the wiiole coun- 
try. Tlie original owners of the land advertised it 
by newspaper articles and notices of sale. In 1854 
Gov. L. J. Farwell carried on a campaign to make 



MADISON OUR HOME 45 

the city known. Letters were written, newspaper 
articles and pamphlets printed and sent to eastern 
cities and states. Dr. L. C. Draper, Secretary of the 
State Historical Society A\Tote a 50 page pamphlet 
on Madison. This resulted in a rapid gain in popula- 
tion and in general business. The Civil War again 
made the city's name prominent. It contained the 
chief military encampment in the state. 70,000 sol- 
diers were quartered here; officials of the United 
States government and officers of the army were visi- 
tors. This, hoAvever, brought no increase to Madison's 
population. From 1865 to 1870 the city made no 
gain but suffered a small loss in number of inhabi- 
tants. 

At the present time there are evidences of an 
awakening on the part of our people to the desira- 
bility of collecting and disseminating information 
about Madison. This will not be, we hope, an attempt 
at mere boasting and self glorification. We must not 
follow the examples of makers of quack medicine, or 
of unprincipled real estate dealers. An association, 
composed of more than a thousand business men and 
professional men, known as the Madison Board of 
Commerce, has taken this matter in hand and become 
responsible for it. They see and acknowledge the 
limitations of Madison. The city lacks some things 
which she ought to have; she is a small city, neither 
complete nor perfect. But, she is a growing city 
with ^'her future ahead of her instead of behind her,'^ 
as someone has expressed it. Her limitations may be 
removed and her faults corrected if her growth is 
wisely fostered and directed ; and above all if there be 



46 MADISON OUR HOME 

harmony and good feeling on the jiart of all citizens 
to co-operate for a common end. 

That an}^ one may talk intelligently about the city, 
whether it be a member of the Board of Commerce or 
of the city government, a teacher or a pupil in the 
schools, he must know its history; must know it as 
it is today with the elements which constitute it ; and 
he must have some idea of the Madison of tomorrow. 
Possessing this knowledge and this idea one may talk 
truthfully and enthusiastically about his city. 



MADISON OUR HOME 47 



THE PRESENT 

We have told the story of Madison ; its beginnings 
and chief events and undertakings down to the pres- 
ent time. We will now look at our city with a view 
to a better understanding of its present life. We will 
analyze it into its elements and component parts. 
These are (1) location and surroundings; (2) racial 
elements in the population; (3) organization and 
government; (4) political relations; (5) chief insti- 
tutions; (6) industry and trade; (7) education; (8) 
recreation; (9) religious and moral forces; (10) civic 
purposes and ideals. 

1. Local Surroundings — General Topography. 
The view of Madison and its environment as seen 
from the Capitol dome will add much to the meaning 
of this little book. It is suggested that the school 
teachers take groups of the children to see this very 
impressive and beautiful view. A field glass should 
be used to obtain the best results. Permission may 
be obtained at the office of the Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Property, on the second floor of the Capitol. The 
guides of the Capitol will be pleased to accompany 
parties. 

The salient feature of Taychopera is the chain 
of four lakes extending from northwest to southeast, 
all connected by tlie Yahara stream, called locally 
the ^^Catfish". The early settlers called these First, 
Second, Third, and Fourth Lakes; naming them in the 



48 MADISON OUR HOME 

order in which they came to them from the south. In 
1854 Gov. L. J. Farwell, assisted b}^ Dr. Lyman C. 
Draper, secretary of the State Historical Society, gave 
the lakes their more euphonious names. First lake 
became Kegonsa or ''fish lake" ; the second, Waubesa, 
''swan"; the third, Monona, "spirit" or ''beautiful";- 
and the fourth, Mendota, "gathering of the waters" 
or "great lake." Lake Wingra, "duck lake,'- belongs 
to the same lacustrine system, having an outlet to 
Lake Monona. In truth Madison is the city of ^Ye 
lakes rather than four lakes. 

Mendota, Monona, and Wingra lakes are in the 
township of Madison. All of WingTa, some four-fifths 
of Mendota, and half of Monona are within the town 
lines. These three lakes girdle the city of Madison. 
They are approximately 840 feet above sea level, and 
210 feet higher than Lake Michigan. Lake Wingra 
has an oval outline, with a diameter of one mile, area 
.75 square mile, greatest depth 25 feet. Monona is 
three miles long and two miles Avide; its area is five 
square miles, greatest depth 75 feet. Mendota, the 
largest of the lakes, is five feet higher than Monona ; 
greatest length, six miles; width, four miles; area, 
fifteen square miles; circumference, twenty-tAvo miles; 
greatest depth, eighty-four feet. 

Many centuries ago a glacier deposited a mass of 
earth and gravel between Lakes Mendota and Mo- 
nona. This isthmus is two miles long and half a 
mile wide; its highest part 75 feet above the lakes, 
and its general direction northeast to southwest. 
Across its eastern end runs the Yahara, the connect- 
ing water link betAveen Mendota and Monona. On 



MADISON OUR HOME 49 

this glacial isthmus the city of Madison sits like a 
Queen upon her throne, its base laved by the environ- 
ing waters, while the dome of the Capitol at the cen- 
ter and of University Hall on the west typify the 
guardian spirits^ — Legislation and Learning. 

Few American cities can catch this picturesque 
natural situation. Boston, Massachusetts, and Port- 
land, Maine, have fine harbors broken by headlands 
and islands.- Washington, D. C, is bordered by the 
Potomac; Philadelphia has the Schuylkill and the 
Delaware; Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, and Mihvau- 
kee have extensive lake frontage. But perhaps no 
otlier American city has such distinctive and pleasing 
combination of land and water as Madison. If it 
lacks the cliffs and serges of the oceans, it has an 
almost complete setting of sparkling waters. Three 
lakes girdle the city with their white arms, and from 
the Capitol five lakes are in full view. No city of the 
great lakes is so uniquely placed between extensive 
and open bodies of water. 

These lakes have a beautiful shore line. In a fcAV 
places the land is low. Within the city limits these 
spots have been filled by pumping sand from the bot- 
tom of the lakes. In this way several small swampy 
sections have been reclaimed and are now covered 
with strets and buildings. • With these few exceptions 
with streets and buildings. Witli tliese few exceptions 
city,' are high, broken, and varied for a distance of 
twenty-five miles, nine miles lying within the city 
limits. Sandstone bluffs rise from twenty-five to one 
hundred and twenty-five feet, having their sides and 
tops covered with forests growths of oak, liickory, 



50 MADISON OUR HOME 

maple, linden, box elder, and elm. Evergreens are 
not native to this portion of Wisconsin. These out- 
cropping ridges thrust themselves over the water at 
several places, as at Maple Bluff and Black Hawk 
Cave. Their surfaces have been eroded into long 
creases, pockets, and shelves, where cling tender ferns 
and delicate mosses ; and are flecked with the pink of 
wild columbine or the red of honej^suckle. Wild birds 
build their nests in the hollows, to flutter and scream 
away at the near approach of some boat. At the wa- 
ter's edge the cliff face is worn by the waves into 
great cavernous holes. When the wind is strong, huge 
billows roll against the wall and plunge their foamy 
tops into the caverns, which give forth strange, heavy 
cries — gurgling, groanings, and bellowings as of some 
disturbed and grumbling giant. 

People who have seen much of the world have 
testified to the impression which the city and its lakes 
makes upon them; among them Sir Edwin Arnold, 
Bayard Taylor, Horace Greely. The great Norwegian 
violinist Ole Bull had married a Madison girl — ^Miss 
Thorpe — in 1872. The musician and his young bride 
were well known to the poet Henry W. Longfellow, 
and often visited him and his family at their home 
"Cragie House" in Cambridge, Mass. In 1876 Madi- 
son was to be represented at the Centennial at Phila- 
delphia by two oil paintings — the work of the artist 
Thomas Moran. A group of women, one of whom 
was Mrs. Thorpe, mother of Mrs. Ole Bull, tiiought it 
would be a fine thing to have Mr. Longfellow write a 
poem to accompany these paintings. Through Mrs. 
Bull the request was made to the poet and liis consent 



MADISON OUR HOME 51 

obtained. After being exhibited at the Centennial in 
1876, these paintings were brought to Madison and 
placed in Science Hall until 1881, when the building 
and its contents were burned. 

Mr .Thorpe, a brother of Mrs. Ole Bull, married 
Miss Annie LongfelloAV, daughter of the poet. This 
was after the death of LongfelloAv, which happened 
in 1882, and many j^ears after the date of the well- 
know^n poem which may be found in all complete 
editions of his works. 

The Four Lakes op Madison. 
Four limpid lakes, four Naiades 

Or sylvan deities are these. 
In flowing robes of azure dressed ; 

Four lovely handmaids that uphold 
Their shining mirrors rimmed with gold, 

To the fair city of the west. 

By day the coursers of the sun 
Drink of these waters as they run 

Their swift diurnal round on high; 
By night the constellations glow 

Far down the hollow deeps below. 
And glimmer in another sky. 

Fair lakes serene and full of light, 
Fair town arrayed in robes of white. 

How visionary ye appear! 

All like a floating landscape seems 

In cloudland or the land of dreams. 
Bathed in a golden atmosphere. 



52 MADISON OUR HOME 

The country about Madison is high and rolling. 
Glacial hills and moraines abound, with valley and 
meadows between. The great ice sheet which once 
stretched from Green Bay soutlnvest to Taychopera 
stopped a few miles west of these lakes ; the terminal 
ridges mark the border, on one side of which the evi- 
dences of glaciaiton exist; on the other no such evi- 
dence is seen. 

Forest growths abound everywhere; trees crown 
the hills, line the water courses, and border the roads. 
Farms occupy all the region. The soil is highly fer- 
tile, yielding good harvests of corn, oats, sugar beets 
and tobacco. Most of the farmers are turning to 
dairying, milk being their most profitable product. 
Nearly all derive income from hogs, beef cattle, poul- 
try, and horses. Besides farm products this region 
yields clay, sand, gravel, and sandstone for building 
and commercial purposes. 

Principal Points and Places in the Locality. 
From a suitable elevation, such as the top of the 
Gay building or the dome of the Capitol, the natural 
features of the region are visible. Mendota opens its 
full length on the north. Toward the west is Picnic 
Point; beyond it rises the Avooded head of Eagle 
Heights. Along the north shore is Fox Bluff; just 
east of it extends Morris Park with its interesting 
Indian Mounds. The Yahara River enters the north- 
east corner of the lake. Governor's Island is part of 
the Mendota Hospital grounds; the great buildings 
so expressive of the state's humanitarianism are in 
sight. Maple Bluff comes next; tlien within the city 



MADISON OUR HOME 53 

limits \h the Yaliara stream Avitli its navigation lock. 
To the south is Monona Lake; a lovely, elevated, tree 
covered shore frames its farther side; terminating at 
ATinnequa (where Jefferson Davis saw the Winne- 
bago village in 1829). At the foot of the bay opening 
beyond Winnequa to the west is the outlet of this 
lake where the Yahara runs to Lake Waubesa, then 
to Lake Kegonsa, thence into Rock Eiver and the 
Mississippi. One may start from Madison in a canoe 
or small boat and go by water to the ^'Mexic gulph". 
AVingra Lake lies on the southwest side of the city, 
and directly west are the grounds and buildings of 
the University. Around the city and its lakes, the 
frame to this picture, extends the diversified country 
lying in the townships adjoining: Blooming Grove on 
the east; Fitchburg on the south; Middleton, west; 
with Westport and Burke on the north. 

2. Racial Elements in Our Population. 

The first scettlers were nearly all of English stock 
and came from the older parts of the Union. As be- 
fore remarked, they were a bold and enterprising 
people, most of them in middle life or younger, and 
brought with them the habits and ideas of the Amer- 
ica of that day. They believed in a settled govern- 
ment; law and order, education, the family, church 
and school. Many were well educated and took prom- 
inent part in the affairs of the city, the county and the 
state. The opening of the University brought culti- 
vated families who placed the stamp of their ideas 
and character upon the community, and gave it a 



54 MADISON OUR HOME 

certain academic tone Avliicli it has ever since re- 
tained. 

The Germans are the most numerous and influen- 
tial of our immigTants and they make the best of 
citizens. They have brought here some of the best 
characteristics of the Fatherland, such as the foster- 
ing of education and music, and a love of out-door 
recreations. 

Scandinavians provide another large strain in our 
population; characterized by their sturdy democracy, 
their tenacious enterprise, and interest in political 
affairs. 

Italians come next in point of numbers. They 
have been arriving quite fast during ten years past, 
They do much of the heavy Avork, masonry, concrete, 
ditching and excavating; a healthy, happy, laborious 
people, having large families and generally thrifty 
and saving. Many own their OAvn homes, and the 
younger folks are taking up lines of trade. 

Like the Italians, Hebrews have recently come 
in considerable numbers. They are intelligent, care- 
ful, and a very capable race; ambitious to become 
property owners; and placing the highest value upon 
education for themselves and children. Ireland has 
given us a small but valuable element; ambitious, 
pushing, good men in business or professions, and 
very keen for politics. 

Of negroes there are about four hundred ; a labori- 
ous, orderl}^, and useful people who give no trouble 
with the race question. 



MADISON OUR HOME 55 

Besides these racial stocks there are Poles, Greeks, 
Bohemians, aDd Chinese; but so few as to add liardly 
a tinge to the city. All these people with tlie possible 
exception of the Chinese are here to remain and be- 
come naturalized. Here these racial elements com- 
bine and unite into a single body politic. From what- 
ever part of the earth they have emigrated, they and 
their children soon learn our ways, uphold our insti- 
tutions, and share our common life. The principal 
agency in tlius assimilating our immigrants is the 
public school. Many call the school the great Ameri- 
can "mixing machine." 

3. Organization and Government. 

]Madison became a city in 1856. It was then di- 
vided into five wards; the number of wards today is 
ten. Many cities have a double legislative body, the 
aldermen and the council. Madison has a single 
chamber — the Board of Aldermen, that is "elder- 
men.'' In common usage while the members are 
called aldermen, their meetings are spoken of as 
"meetings of the council," a confusion of expressions. 
At the liead of the city government is the mayor who 
presides over the meetings of the city council, ap- 
points many subordinate city officials, represents the 
city on public occasions and gives a welcome to visit- 
ing conventions. 

List of City Officials, 

1. The Mayor — chosen by the people every two 
years at tlie election held on first Tuesday in April. 
Salary |1,000. 



56 MADISON OUR HOME 

2. T\yenty Aldermen — two from each ward. One- 
half chosen by the people each year. Terms of office, 
two years. Salary $300. 

3. City Treasurer — elected l)y the people. Term 
of office, two years. Salary |1,200. 

4. City Clerk — appointed by Mayor and Alder- 
men. Term of office, one year. Salary |1,800. (Mr. 
Ole Norsman, the present city clerk, is noAV serving 
his twenty- seventh year in that capacity.) 

5. Assistant Clerk — appointed by the Mayor and 
Aldermen. Term of office, one year. Salary |1,080. 

6. Auditor — appointed by the Mayor and Alder- 
men. Term of office, one year. Salary |1,600. 

7. Attorney — appointed by the Mayor and Al- 
dermen. Term of office, one year. Salary |1,800. 

8. Building Commissioner — appointed by the 
Mayor and Aldermen. Term of office, one year. Sal- 
ary $1,500. 

9. Engineer — appointed by the Mayor and Alder- 
men. Term of office, one year. Salary $2,700. 

10. Plumbing Inspector — appointed by the Mayor 
and Aldermen. Term of office, one year. Salary 
$1,200. 

11. Sealer of Weights and Measures — appointed 
by the Mayor and Aldermen. Term of office, one year. 
Salary $1,200. 

12. Superintendent of Streets — ^^appointed by the 
Mayor and Aldermen. Term of office, one year. Sal- 
ary $1,800. 

13. Two Assistant Street Superintendents — ap- 



MADISON OUR HOME 57 

pointed by the Mayor and Aldermen. Term of office, 
one year. Salary |1,080. 

14. Assessor — appointed by the Mayor and Alder- 
men. Term of office, one year. Salary |1,000. 

15. Electrical Inspector — appointed by the Ma} or 
and Aldermen. Term of office, one year. Salary 
$1,200. 

IG. Superintendent of Water Works — appointed 
by the Board of Water Commissioners. Term of office, 
one year. Salary |1,500. 

17. Chief of Police — appointed by the Board of 
Police and Fire Commissioners. Salary, |1,200. 

18. Chief of Fire Department — appointed by the 
Board of Police and Fire Commissioners. Salary 
11,320. 

19. Health Officer — ^appointed by the Board of 
Health. Term of office, two years. Salary |1,200. 

20. Dairy and Food Inspector — appointed by the 
Board of Health. Term of office, one year. Salary 
$1,200. 

21. Sanitary Inspector — appointed by the Board 
of Health. Term of office, one year. Salary |1,020. 

In addition to the officials given above, tlie mem- 
bers of the following' Boards have a share in the 
administration of cit}^ business, serving Avithout pay. 

1. Board of Public Works — three members ap- 
pointed by the Mayor and Aldermen. This Board 
assists in street planning and improvement. 

2. Board of Education — eight members, six cho- 
sen by the Aldermen, the Mayor and one Alderman. 
It has general charge of the public schools of the 



58 MADISON OUR HOME 

city : all that pertains to the choice of building sites, 
kind and cost of school houses, use of school liouses, 
employment and salaries of teachers, clioice of text 
books, and the responsibility of preparing the finan- 
cial budget for each school year. 

3. Board of Water Commissioners with five mem- 
bers — three appointed by the Aldermen, one Alder- 
man and the Mayor. They have charge of tlie i)ublic 
water supply. 

Jr. Board of Police and Fire Commissioners has 
five members — three apopinted by the Mayor and Al- 
dermen, one Alderman and the Mayor. All matters 
pertaining to the police and fire departments are in 
their charge. 

5. Board of Health has four members consisting 
of three Aldermen and the city Health Officer. It is 
their duty to see that the state laws and city ordi- 
nances relating to public health and sanitation are 
enforced. Record of all births and deaths in Madison 
are kept by this Board. 

6. Directors of the Park and Pleasure Drive As- 
sociation — seven members, five chosen b}^ the Park 
Association, with one Alderman and the Mayor. 

7. General Hospital Association — fifteen mem- 
bers on the Board of Directors, twelve chosen by the 
Hospital Association; two Aldermen and the Mayor. 

8. Cemetery Commission — seven members, ap- 
pointed by the Mayor and Aldermen. 

9. Free Library Board — ^ten members appointed 
by the Mayor and Aldermen. 

Tlie Hospital Association and the Park Associa- 



MADISON OUR HOME 



59 



8 



S< » 
« r E 



: Q J 

< 6 



i_i 



W-- 



<^?, 



^ cr 
-> o 

5- 

< 2 

I 

^V I ^ 

I 



o= 



^1 



-«^ 






()0 MADISON OUR HOME 

tion are not legall}^ aucl organically a part of the city 
government as the other Boards and Commissions 
are, but they receive financial help from the city, and 
this is Avhy members of the city government have 
places on their Boards of Directors. 

The above list of boards and officials will give 
some idea of the large and varied work which the city 
of Madison is carrying on. City business amounts 
to nearly one million dollars annually. Some of the 
money comes from special licenses and fees; some 
from water rents and garbage collection assessments; 
but most of it is by direct taxes upon the property and 
incomes of the people. 

4. Political Relations. 

Madison is a free and self-governing city. At the 
same time it is a i)art of four other larger political 
bodies. 

The City of Madison and Madison Township. 

It is located in Madison township but has no con- 
trol over township affairs; nor does tlie township 
have control over the affairs of the city. The city 
does, however, have a measure of control over land 
adjacent to the city limits and Avhich Avill in time be 
added to the city. 

The City of Madison and Bane County. 

The county has a certain measure of authority 
and control over all towns and cities witliin its lim- 
its. Madison is the largest city in Dane County and 
the seat of the county government. It is sometimes 



MADISON OUR HOME 61 

called the ^'sliire'' town— an old Anglo-Saxon term 
signifying the chief town in the shire or county. The 
government of Dane County is in the hands of a 
county Board. There are sixty-four members of whom 
ten are from Madison, one from each ward, elected 
by the people. 

TJie City of Madison and the State of Wisconsin. 
Madison is not only a part of the township of 
Madison and the county of Dane; it is at the same 
time a part of the State of Wisconsin. A city is a 
cliild of the state which creates it by an act of tlie 
Legislature. State laws are binding upon the city. 
No city ordinance may violate or abrogate a state 
law; if it does the court will set it aside. The tax 
money raised here is not all used for city purposes. 
A part — Madison's proportionate share of the county 
expenses — goes to Dane County; and another part 
goes to the state. These figures give the respective 



t5 

sums 



Total city tax for 1914 |1,355,531.26 

Of which Dane County's share was 94,231.14 
The State's share was 131,957.00 

In making. the laws of the state and in its gen- 
eral government the city has a part. Madison citi- 
zens help to elect one senator and one assemblyman 
for the state legislature. Madison is in the twenty- 
sixth senatorial district (there are thirty-three such 
districts in the state), which comprises Dane County. 
The senator from this district may be chosen from 
any town or city in it ; and in the legislature he rep- 



62 MADISON OUR HOME 

resents the people of the entire district including 
Madison. This district has about 85,000 population. 

Madison is a part of the First Assembly District 
of Dane County. This district comprises the city of 
Madison, Madison township, with the towns of Bloom- 
ing Grove, Dunn, and Pleasant Springs. The assem- 
blyman may be chosen from any one of these com- 
munities, and is the representative of all of them in 
the legislature. The district numbers about 35,000 
people. Citizens of Madison are very frequently 
elected to represent their district in the Senate and 
in the Assembly. 

Madison citizens also vote for the elective State 
officers including Governor, State Treasurer, Attor- 
ney General, Secretary of State, Superintendent or 
Education, Justice of the Supreme Court; for the 
Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, (in which 
Madison is situated and most of whose sittings are 
held here) ; for Judge of the County Court; and Judge 
of the Municipal Court. 

Three governors of the state have been residents 
of Madison: 

Leonard J. Farwell, 1852—1854. 

Lucius Fairchild, 1866—1872. 

Kobert M. La Follette, 1901—1906. 
Madison's Relations to the Federal Government. 

Madison as a political unit or legal corporate body 
is subordinate to the larger unit of the County, and tt) 
the still larger unit, the State. It is further subordi- 
nate to the largest unit of all in our national political 
system — tlie Federal Government. 



MADISON OUR HOME 



63 




FEDERAL BUILDING 



Our post-office, like all post-offices in the country, 
is the property of the United States. It is a part 
of the Post-office Department of the Federal Govern- 
ment, at whose liead is an officer called the Postmas- 
ter General. 

The work of our post-office and tlie amount of its 
business depends upon how mucli our people use it. 
The more letters we write or receive, the more we use 
stamps, registered letters, postal money orders, and 
pacrels post — tlie more business is done through our 
post-office. The amount of such business is always 
an index of a city's prosperity. As a city increases 
in population, trade, and wealth, its post-office re- 
ceipts increase. Applying this to Madison we find 
that its post-office receipts are very large and growing 
larger every year. For the year 1914 they were |251,- 
575; while for 1915 they had increased to $281,296. 



64 MADISON OFR HOME 

Only two cities in Wisconsin liave larger receipts 
than Madison. 

This money is only a part of the reyenue Ayhich the 
people of Madison pay to the Federal Goyernment. 
Eyery single person haying a net income of |3,000, 
aboye his exemptions pays an income tax on the excess 
oyer |3,000 and exemptions. A married man pays on 
the excess oyer $4,000 and exemptions. All corpora- 
tions, excepting religious, co-operatiye and beueyo- 
lent, pay a tax on their entire net income. 

The city tax budget is made up and authorized by 
the yote of Aldermen and Mayor. It coyers money 
for city purposes, for the city's share of the Dane 
County tax, and the State tax. The Federal income 
tax is laid directly by the United States Goyernment. 

There are located in Madison the following Fed- 
eral officers: 

A Federal Judge. 

Clerk of Federal Court. 

U. S. Marshall. 

Internal Reyenue Collector. 

Referee in Bankruptcy. 

U. S. District Attorney. 

Post-office Inspector. 

Pension Examiners. 

Our citizens help elect men to the National Con- 
gress. Each of the forty-eight states sends two Sena- 
tors to Washington for a term of six years. Madison 
yoters thus help to elect two men to the upper branch 
of Congress. 

They haye a still larger share in electing a mem- 



MADISON OUR HOME 65 

ber of the lower house, or House of Representatives. 
United States senators are chosen from the state at 
large. For the selection of CongTessional Represent- 
atives the state is divided into eleven districts. Madi- 
son is the second congressional district, comprising 
the counties of Dane, Iowa, Green, La Fayette, Grant 
and Crawford. The man elected from this district is 
thus the representative in the lower branch of Con- 
gress, of some 200,000 people; and toward his election 
Madison casts more votes than any other single com- 
munity. 

Madison men have many times been sent to Wash- 
ington. 

U. S. Senators— Wm. F. Vilas, J. C. Spooner and 
R. M. La Follette. 

Representatives — David A. Atwood, Henry C. 
Adams, John M. Nelson, Burr W. Jones, and R. M. 
La Follette. 

5. Chief Institutions in the City. 

By an institution we mean something made or 
organized for the service of the people; something 
which is meant to endure. An institution may be 
oAvned and carried on by the public, as, for example, 
the city, or county, the state, or national government. 
Or it may be owned and carried on by a private asso- 
ciation; as a parochial schopl, a hospital, etc. Tliere 
are institutions of both kinds in our city. 

There are many Public Institutions as the fol low- 
ing' list will show. 



66 MADISON OUR HOME 

Federal Institutions. 

The Post Office, located on the corner of Wiscon- 
sin Ave. and E. Mifflin Street. The building erected 
in 1871 will soon be repkiced by a larger one for wliich 
Congress has voted more than half a million dollars. 
Such a building should suffice for the postal needs of 
Madison for many years to come. Several federal offi- 
cers have their headquarters here. (See list, page 64.) 
Another federal institution is the Forests Products 




FOREST i'iiODUCTS LABORATORY 
THE ONLY ONE IN THE U. S. 

Laboratory. The building is furnished by the State 
of Wisconsin; the work of forest investigation and 
products utilization is carried on by the U. S. Depart- 
ment of AgTiculture. The location of this plant, 
which forms the center of such forestry study for the 
entire United States, is on University Ave. at Camp 
Kandall. It is the only enterprise of its kind in the 
country. 



MADISON OUR HOME 07 



State Institutions. 



The Capitol. This splendid edifice is an architec 
tural work of the highest order, and ranks with the 
great buildings of the world. It is of Avhite granite 
from Vermont, cruciform, with a dome rising from 
the center. Its total length is 434 feet; its highest 
point 283 feet. It will cost about eight million dol- 
lars; an amount which would not have paid for a 
single day's cost of our Civil War, and which would 
be a mere drop in the bucket towards the cost of the 
present European War. The portico pediments carry 
sculptures symbolizing the resources and activities 
of the state. Those on the north pediment are by 
A. Picarelli ; on the south pediment, by Adolph Wein- 
mann (author of the Lincoln statue in front of Main 
Hall) ; the east and west pediments are by Karl Bit- 
ter. Four massive groups at the base of the dome 
enhance its proportions and add to its pyramidal 
effect. These groups by Karl Bitter represent the 
basic elements in the life of all commonwealths: 
Strength — Abundance — Learning — Faith. The great 
rotunda is the most impressive interior feature. Here; 
are mosaics by Kenyon Cox and the painting by Ed- 
ward Blashfield, "Wisconsin and her resources". The 
Asesmbly chamber contains the painting, "Wisconsin 
— past, present, and future," also by Blashfield. In 
the Senate chamber is Kenyon Cox's painting, "The 
Wedding of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans." The 
governor's reception room is a miniature reproduc- 
tion of one in the Ducal Palace in Venice. On the 
walls are scenes from Wisconsin history and the ceil- 



G8 MADISON OUR HOME 

ings have symbolic designs, all by Hugo Ballin. The 
Supreme Court room contains masterpieces by Al- 
bert Herter. The subjects are, first — Roman cen- 
turian appealing for justice to the Emperor Augus- 
tus, second — Signing the Magna Charta, third — 
Signing the Constitution of the United States, fourth 
— Judge Doty deciding the trial of an Indian by In- 
dian code. 

The Capitol stands in the center of the city, on a 
piece of ground 14 acres in extent (just the space 
covered by the famous great pyramid in Egypt). It 
is an inadequate setting for so magnificent a structure 
which requires at least four times as much land to 
give the proper effect. Sometime when the public 
taste has become more appreciative of art, and public 
feeling sufiiciently aroused, the whole space, two 
blocks in width, between Capitol Park and Lake Mo- 
nona will be purchased by the state and cleared of 
buildings. This will provide a wide esplanade con- 
necting the Capitol and the lake and affording the 
proper approach to the building; a broad, tree bor- 
dered vista through which the harmonious propor- 
tions and fine lines of the Capitol could be seen at 
once. 

In the Capitol all the important business of the 
state and all the chief state officers have their head- 
quarters: the Governor, Secretaries of departments, 
State Commissions, Supreme Court, etc. Here the 
Legislature meets in biennial session to make our 
state laws. 

An adjunct of the Capitol is the heating plant, 



MADISON OUR HOME CO 

with its chimney 250 feet high, located at 622 E. Main 
St. A tunnel, eight feet by nine, running under E. 
Washington Ave. connects the Capitol and the Heat- 
ing Plant. 

The Governor's residence is at No. 130 E. Gilman 
St. It was purchased by the state in 1882.* 

Wisconsin's foremost educational institution is 
located in Madison in accordance with the early law 
wdiich determined that "the University shall be situ- 
ated at or near the seat of government.'' This is 
one reason and probably the chief one, why the at- 
tempts to remove the capitol have failed. Both insti- 
tutions must be located in the same city. 

The University began very feebly, a mere babe in 
a manger. In 1849 a prei)aratory course was opened 
in the Female Academy building, where the Madison 
High School now stands. The city donated the use of 
this building. College courses began in 1850; North 
Hall was built in 1851 ; South Hall in 1855 ; and the 
first class of two graduated in 1851. Such was the 
birth of our great university which has now over 
7,000 students, and whose extension courses reach 
seven thousand more all over the state. In 1915, 723 
degrees were conferred ; 14,000 degrees have been con- 
ferred since 1854 ; 5,000 students are from Wisconsin. 
More than 2,000 students come from other states in the 



*Here on September 6, 1870, the famous violinist Ole Bull 
was married to Sarah Thorpe. The bridegroom was sixty years 
old, the bride twenty; a union of May and December. A large 
reception parlor at the east end of the building was Ole Bull's 
music room. 



MADISON OUR HOME 



71 



Union, and from foreign countries. University ex- 
penses for all purposes are over two and one-half 
million dollars per year; a little more than one-half 
raised by general state tax. University grounds total 




THE CAMPUS 




FROM LAKE MENDOTA 



72 MADISON OUR HOME 

1,400 acres, on wliicli are 60 buildings. The University 
represents an investment by the state of about $7,000,- 
000, all of which adds to the wealth, culture and im- 
portance of our city. 

University government rests Avith the regents, a 
board of fifteen, one from each of the eleven con- 
gressional districts; two from the state at large; the 
President of the Universit^^, and the State Superin- 
tendent of Education. Two members of the Board 
must be women. 

Readers of this book are no doubt familiar with 
the University. They know the beautiful campus 
with its hills and slopes and groves; its shady walks 
and drives; its clean, long, tree lined rim upon the 
lake shore. Tlie}^ kn[)w Camp Randall where the Uni- 
versity teams compete witli those from other colleges 
for the honors in foot ball, base ball, and track ath- 
letics. 

The principal buildings of the University are: . 

Armory and Gymnasium. 

Historical Library. 

Medical School. 

Science Hall. 

Wisconsin High School. 

New Stadium. 

The Agricultural Department Buildings. 

Engineering Building. 

Law School. 

Chemistry Building. 

Physics Building. 

Observatorv. 



MADISON OUR HOMP] 73 

Extension Division and Home Economics Building. 
University Hall. 

County Iiistitutioiis. 

Buildings belonging to Dane County are on West 
Main Street. The Court House Avas erected in 1882, 
and contains rooms for the various county officials: 
County Treasurer, County Surve^^or, Income Tax As- 
sessor, Highway Commissioner, Coroner, County 
Clerk, Register of Deeds, Poor Commissioner, Sheriff. 

Here, too, are the quaters of the Xinth Judicial 
Circuit Court, County Court, Juvenile Court, Munici- 
pal Court, County Supervisors. 

Adjoining the Court House are the Dane County 
Jail and Sheriff's residence. 

Care of the poor people in Madison is, by law, in 
the hands of the County Poor Commissioner. Consid- 
erable money, (f 7,000 in 1915), is spent by him every 
year for rent, food, and fuel for these unfortunates. 
Some are sent to the County Farm and Home for the 
Needy, located at Yerona ten miles southwest of 
Madison. In this way the city receives tlie benefit of 
some of the money Avhich it contributes to the county 
taxes. But the care of the poor is not left wholly to 
the County, much is done by local societies and people 
of which Ave will speak later. 

City Institutions. 

The organization of the city gOA^ernment is de- 
scribed on pages 55-59. 

The City Hall was built in 1858; here are the 
offices of most of the officials and city departments. 



74 MADIJ^OX OUll HOME 

They oconpy tAVo floors. On the third fl.icr is the 
Armory, headquarters of the Governor's Guard, re- 
cruited from the city and vicinity. 

Besides the City Hall there are the following mu- 
nicipal buildings : 

Four Fire Stations : 

Central Station, 120 S. Webster St. 

Station No. 2, 125 State Street. 

Station No. 3, 1217 Williamson Street. 

Station No. 4, 1329 W. Dayton Street. 

Police Station, 14 S. Webster Street. 

City Pumping Station, 311 N. Hancock Street. 

Sewerage Disposal Plant, beyond northern limits 
of the city. 

Sewerage Pumj) Station, 1707 E. Wasliington 
Avenue. 

Madison Free Librarv, 206 N. Carroll Street. 




MADISUN FllEE LIBRARY 



MADISON OUR HOME 75 

Quarantine Hospital, 1954 E. Washington Avenue. 
Public Market, Mifflin and Blount Streets. 
Sixth Ward Branch Library, Williamson Street. 
Forest Hill Cemetery, at the end of street car line 
west of the city. 

Contagious Hospital, E. Washington Avenue. 
The City Schools. Names and locations of the 
schools are as follows: 

High School, Wisconsin Avenue. 

The George W^ashington School, N. Broom Street. 

The Abraham Lincoln School, E. Gorham Street. 

The Louisa M. Brayton School, E. Washington 
Avenue. 

The James D. Doty School, W. Wilson Street. 

The Lyman C. Draper School, W. Johnson and 
Park Streets. 

The Jacques Marquette School, Williamson Street. 

The Governor and Mrs. Harvey School, Jenifer 
Street. 

The Increase A. Lapham School, E. Dayton Street. 
The Henry W. Longfellow School, Chandler Street. 
The Alexander W. Kandall School, Regent and 
Spooner Streets. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne School, Northeast District, 
Division Street. 

James Russell Lowell School, Fair Oaks. 

In naming these schools the Board of Education 
has wished to perpetuate the names and influence of 
typical Americans, some of these being persons of 



76 MADISON OUR HOME 

national fame, while others have been of service to 
Wisconsin or to Madison. The names, Washington, 
Lincoln, Lowell, Longfellow recall our two great 
presidents and two of the best knoAvn and most be- 
loved authors. None of them lived in this city or in 
this state. The other names have closer connection 
with our own histor}'. Louisa M. Braj^ton was the 
first teacher of a public school in Madison (see page 
21). James Douane Doty, second governor of Wis- 
consin Territory, 1841 — 1841, brought about the se- 
lection of Madison as the capital of Wisconsin. Ly- 
man C. Draper was the first secretary of the State 
Historical Society, 1854 — 1886. He gathered a large 
collection of letters, documents, and photogTaphs, re- 
lating to the history of the middle west. These are 
of the greatest value. Dr. Draper lived in Madison 
thirty-nine years; he was State Superintendent of 
Education, 1853 — 1859. Jacques Marquette is the 
name of a heroic and consecrated priest who with the 
French Captain Louis Joliet descended the Wisconsin 
Kiver from Portage to Prairie du Chien (or where 
these towns now stand), and discovered the Missis- 
sippi in the year 1671. The story of Father Marquette 
has been delightfully told by the late Dr. Reuben G. 
Thwaites who succeeded Dr. Draper as Secretary of 
the State Historical Society. Increase A. Lapham 
(portrait in governor's reception room), citizen of 
Wisconsin, was fatlier of the U. S. Weather Bureau. 
Alexander W. Randall Avas Governor of Wisconsin, 
1858—1862. Camp Randall was named after him. 
The Harvey School was named for L. J. Harvey, gov- 
ernor of Wisconsin (1862), who was drowned in the 



MADISON OUR HOME 77 

Mississippi river while on a visit to the troops at the 
front, and his faithful wife who after his death cared 
for Wisconsin's soldiers' orphans. 

Semi-Puhlic Institutions; i. e., institutions owned 
and controlled only in part by the city. The funds for 
their support are in part voted by the city, and in 
part raised by popular subscription. 

Examples of Semi-Piihlic Institutions. 

The General Hospital. The property comprises 
land and buildings valued at |200,000, located on 
Mound Street, Greenbush. All cases of accident or 
disease, except contagious diseases, are cared for in 
the General Hospital. No one is turned away ; those 
who are not able to pay are freely given nursing, phy- 
sician's care, medicine and food. It is on this ground 
that the city helps in the support of the hospital. 
1,800 patients received treatment in 1915. Tliirty 
girls are being prepared to become nurses in the 
Nurses' Training School. 

The Parks and Drives. These are under the con- 
trol and management of the Madison Park and Pleas- 
ure Drive Association. The city voted a first appro- 
priation for the parks in 1898, and has continued this 
each year. The reason for this is the same as in 
the case of the liospital, viz., the benefit to the people 
which comes from the parks, and the general satis- 
faction with this policy. 

(List of parks, location, acres, see page 36.) 

Tlie Humane Society, thougii owning no property 
receives aid from the city, and belongs to this class 
of semi-public institutions. Its object is the protec- 



78 



MADISON Orii HO^klE 




MADISON OUR HOME 71) 

tion of animals and birds; and it also assists in the 
case of needy or neglected children. We may note 
how in such a case as this, an institution is a society, 
incorporated and so capable of receiving and holding 
legacies and bequests; having an organization with a 
constitution, by-laws, and officers, but without pos- 
sessing any land or building. Generally speaking an 
institution is associated witli some particular build- 
ing or buildings. This is not always the case as Ave 
learn from the Humane Society. 

Til ere are then five classes of public institutions in 
Madison : 

Tliose belonging to the United States. 

Those belonging to the State of Wisconsin. 

Those belonging to Dane County. 

Those belonging to the city. 

Those owned and controlled in part by the city. 

In addition to these Madison contains many P7^i- 
vate Institutions. These are owned and managed by 
private individuals or organizations; their aim is 
some form of usefulness or service to the people. 
Some are incorporated — i. e. capable of receiving be- 
quests — others not. Were we to give a complete list 
of the private institutions it would require many 
pages, and is not necessary for our purpose. The 
city directory will show all that are not here. Some 
of the more important private institutions are : 

Madison Turn-Verein. 

The St. Mary's Hospital. 

The Stoeber Hospital. 

The Parochial Schools^ — 
St. Bernard's School. 



80 



MADISON orii HOME 




MADISON OUR HOME 81 

St. James School. 
St. Patrick's School. 
Father Pettit School. 
Holy Iledeemer School. 
Private Schools — 

Edgewood Academy. 
Capital City Commercial College. 
School of Telegraphy. 
Wisconsin School of Music. 
Wheeler School of Music. 
Lodges : Beavers, Foresters, Knights of Columbus, 
Knights of Pythias, Masons, Modern Woodmen, 
Moose, Eagles, Odd Fellows, Woodmen of the World. 
Clubs : Elks, Olympic, Madison, University and 
Woman's. 
Churches. 

Others would be banks. Board of Commerce, Y. 
W. C. A. and Y. M. C. A. 

6. Industry and Trade. 

This is one of the most important elements in the 
life of any community, large or small. The people 
who carry on trade or manufactures may be consid- 
ered as a separate class. Tliey are such only in so 
far as they serve a somewhat different purpose from 
that of other people, such as lawyers, teachers, and 
oflflce holders. They do not in truth form a separate 
class. They are one with all the other occupations 
of the city ; when they prosper the city prospers with 
them; when they do not prosper the whole city feels 
the effect. Our merchants, traders, and manufactur- 
ers are so bound up with all the rest of the popula- 



82 MADISON OUR HOME 

tion, and all the population so related to tliem and 
dependent upon them that tlie}' cannot be divided. 
As the Bible says, ^'We are all members one of 
another. If one member suffers then all members 
suffer together; if one member rejoices then all rejoice 
together.'' 

The American Idea of Trade and Industry. 

In former times a certain degTadation was at- 
tached to business life. Men of force and ambition 
became priests or soldiers, land owners or politicians, 
and members of learned professions. Tradesmen were 
looked down upon as belonging to a lower order, even 
though no city could possibly live without them. It was 
so in ancient Greece and Rome, in the Middle Ages, in 
France and England, down to very recent times. And 
indeed today many families belonging to the Euro- 
pean nobility feel it a disgrace for a son or daughter 
of the liouse to marry into the family of a tradesman. 
When one of the nobility became poor and went into 
business he lost caste; he had demeaned liimself and 
his family it was said, when in truth he should have 
been honored for trying to support himself. 

It is honorable to support oneself. It is praise- 
worthy to produce or sell goods which people need. 
This is the American idea and doctrine. It should 
be cherished and defended, b}- all true 3^oung Ameri- 
cans. 

Wliat we call business is one of tlie greatest and 
best of schools. Success in business requires all the 
best qualities of the man, patience, hard w^ork, fore- 
sight, careful planning, watchfulness. It is a severe 



MADISON OUR HOME 83 

discipline and only a few men out of all who under- 
take to support tliemsehes in business ever succeeded. 
Business is a moral training of the utmost value. In 
it there are many temptations to fraud, deceit, and 
trickery, and just as many opportunities to go 
straight, to speak tlie truth, to work diligently. Bus- 
iness life in all its phases is a place for testing char- 
acter ; a drill ground where some of the best and no- 
blest moral traits may be developed. 

The American doctrine of business life teaches 
that 

a. It is an honorable means of making one's liv- 

ing and that of one's family. 

b. It is a useful, a necessary service to the com- 
munity. 

c. It involves nothing of disgrace. 

d. It is a means of moral education and disci- 
pline. 

The Se7^vice Rendered to the City by Its 
Manufacturers. 

Madison has a hundred and twenty corporations 
and firms engaged in manufacturing. Some are 
small; a few are large enterprises. They turn out 
and put upon the market nearly one hundred dif- 
ferent articles and lines of goods. In doing this they 
import raw materials; give business to the railroads, 
truck men, and express companies; employ several 
thousand men and women, paying them many thou- 
sands of dollars in wages every week; i)urchase from 
Madison merchants all manner of goods and materi- 
als needed in the factory; swell the receipts of the 



84 MADISON OUR HOME 

post office; increase the city's valuation; and pay 
large sums in taxes into the city treasury. Like those 
organs in the human body which, converting the food 
we eat into blood, send it pulsating into all members 
and parts of the system, so these manufacturers do 
more to create wealth directly by turning raw ma- 
terial into saleable products and putting money into 
circulation than any other class of people except the 
farmers. Necessary as the merchant is he does not 
directly create wealth ; he only collects and keeps the 
finished goods for distribution. What the manufac- 
turer creates, the merchant buys and holds where the 
individual customer may select what he Avants. 

It has been said by some that Madison people do 
not sufficiently appreciate the role which manufac- 
turing plays in the financial and economic life of the 
city. Otlier institutions are older and have engrossed 
our interest such as the Capitol and the University. 
These are great and noble institutions. They have 
added much to the city's prosperity and given it fame 
abroad. But they play a very different part and ac- 
complish a very different purpose from that of our 
manufacturers. In the new capitol building there 
are 625 persons employed by the state and living in 
Madison. They receive in wages about $60,000 per 
month, or |720,000 per year. 

It is estimated that our manufacturing establish- 
ments employ 3,000 persons and pay in wages |333,000 
per month or f4,000,000 per year. Total product 
of manufacturers, |10,000,000. 

A list prepared for the Board of Commerce and 
classified : 



MADISON OUR HOME 85 

General manufacturers, 39; 33 incorporated. 

Printing and publishing, 10. 

Beverages, 6. 

Dairy products, 7. 

Cement, 8. 

Laundries, 3. 

Dye works and cleaners, 3. 

Bakeries, 4. 

Kepair shops, 9. 

Book binderies, 3. 

Cigars, 5. 

Contractors and builders, 12. 

Miscellaneous, 9. 

56 pay income taxes. 

Middlemen, Distributors, Jobbers. 

In the process of business these distributors stand 
between the manufacturer on the one hand and the 
retail storekeeper and consumer on the other. Much 
has been said in censure of these middlemen. If 
goods could be carried directly from the factory or 
place of production to the consumer the price would 
be less and so the cost of living would be lowered. 
But it has been found very difficult if not impossible 
to accomplisli this. The manufacturer does not want 
to add to his business the cost and trouble of selling 
his product directly to the people who use that prod- 
uct. For example, the manufacturer of stoves in 
Detroit does not ti'y to sell his stoves one by one here 
in Madison. To do that would require that his agent 
should canvass the city from house to house or that 
hundreds of letters should be written and sent to 



S(j MADISON OUR HOME 

Madison people iu order to find those who wish to 
purchase a stove. Instead of this the Detroit manu- 
facturer sells a car load of his stoves to one of our 
hardware merchants. 

The farmer is loath to take the extra labor re- 
quired to carry the products directly to the homes of 
city people. He, too, sells in wholesale lots to the 
middlemen and the storekeepers, his eggs, apples, 
or chickens. In a few cases as in the marketing of 
clieese and meats a scheme of co-operation has been 
worked out whereby the middleman is abolished. In 
most lines of trade the middleman has been found 
to be indispensable or at least most people are unwill- 
ing to forego his services even if they might save 
money. 

Madison contains several of these distributing 
liouses. It is well located for this purpose at the 
center of a prosperous region of toAvns, villages, and 
farms, with a total population of more than two hun- 
dred thousand. 

Leading Forms of Distrihutiiif/ Business. 

Agricultural Implements: Plows, harvesting ma- 
chinery, farm tractors, corn and tobacco planters, 
cream separators. There are 28 establishments of 
this kind. 

Wliolesale fruit liouses. 

Tobacco. 

Paper goods. 

Groceries. 

Lumber. 

National Biscuit Company. 



MADISON OUK HOME 87 

Retail Merchants. 

The retail mercliant is the link betAveen the pro- 
ducer and the consumer of goods. Most of his goods 
are bought from middlemen who have purchased from 
the manufacturer in large lots. Sometimes the re- 
tailer purchases directly from the manufacturer or 
l>roducer, especially if these are located near at hand. 
Thus the Madison grocer buys direct from the farm, 
and tlie retail confectioner buys directl}^ from the 
manufacturers. 

It is the almost universal habit of people in Amer- 
ica to rely upon the retail merchant, the store keeper. 
He is ever^^where where men dwell in groups of any 
size. He purcliases and puts on his shelves and coun- 
ters goods from all parts of this country and from 
foreign lands. What long journeys some of these 
boxes and packages have taken. Teas, spices, and 
coffee from China and the Indian Ocean ; olives, silks, 
figs from the Mediterranean; toys from Germany; 
watches from Switzerland; cutlery from England; 
linen from Ireland. When a Madison boy eats his 
breakfast he sits down to a table made in Grand 
Rapids, Michigan, the cloth woven in Massachusetts, 
knives and forks from Connecticut, buttermilk and 
eggs from Dane County farms; wheat for his bread 
grew in North Dakota, sugar from Louisiana, canned 
pineapple from Honolulu, coffee from Arabia, cookies 
spiced from India; his clothes were made in New 
York, his shoes in Chicago, his hat in Danburry, 
Connecticut ; he carries to school a pad of paper from 
Oshkosh, witli pencils from Pennsylvania; he rides a 



88 MADISON OUR HOME 

bike made in Cleveland — and all these many articles, 
food, wearing apparel, etc., have been bought in the 
retail stores in Madison. The store keeper is in touch 
with every household and with practically every per- 
son who lives in the city. 

Could We Get Along Without the Retail Merchant? 

Some families buy directly from the farmers, thus 
making a saving upon such articles as eggs, vegeta- 
bles and butter. Much was claimed for the parcels 
post as a convenient and economical way of direct 
buying Avithout using the retailer. City families, it 
was claimed, would become regular customers of the 
farmers through the parcels j)ost, but it has not been 
so used either in Madison or in any other city, so 
far as we can learn. What is the reason for this? 
Why do so few farmers bring their produce directly 
to the door of the city housewife? And why do the 
city families make almost no use of the parcels post 
for obtaining the produce of the farms? The answer 
is that they do not care to, and they do not care to 
because of the time and trouble involved. We are 
here speaking especially of articles for the kitchen 
and the table ; things to be cooked and eaten. People 
living in Madison and in all American cities have 
become accustomed to the service of the retail grocer, 
butcher, fish dealer, and fruit dealer. This service is 
satisfactory, reliable and quick; goods are clean, 
fresli, neatly packed, and appetizing in appearance; 
that is the kind of service our retail food merchants 
give us; and that is the kind people want and are 
willing to pay for even though it does cost more. 



MADISON OUR HOME 89 

The retailer wliose service is unsatisfactory will lose 
his customers. They will trade with those Avho do 
give satisfaction. The parcels post is not so con- 
venient, and it can probably never be made so sat- 
isfactory. Whatever we want in the way of food, 
clothing, hardware, or anything else, Ave know that 
our city stores keep these things, that we can visit 
these stores, select Avhat we want, and have it deliv- 
ered for us. And a very important factor in this 
question is the telephone, which everyone now uses 
more or less in ordering from the stores. 

On the other hand the farmer would need to treat 
liis products in the same way that the retailer does. 
He will be obliged in order to satisfy city folk, to 
wrap his butter in separate pound packages, to put 
his eggs in paste-board cases, holding a dozen each; 
to dress his chickens and cure his meats as cleanly 
as the butcher, and to deliver them as wanted. For 
the same reason that the housewife w^ill not take the 
trouble nor spare the time involved in trading di- 
rectly with the farmers — ^so the farmers will not take 
time or trouble to market his produce in the same at- 
tractive and convenient way that the retailer does. 
The farmer would be obliged to alter his habits, to 
change his accustomed ways, to develop new methods, 
if he would sell his products directly to the con- 
sumer. He is not ready or not willing to do this, but 
prefers to sell his Avhole load of vegetables, his cases 
of eggs, baskets of chickens, or firkins of butter to 
the retailer. The latter must then prepare these and 
deliver them to his various customers. 

In some cities there are large open markets where 



90 MADISON OUR HOME 

tlie farmers sell directly to the consumers who bring 
their baskets on their arms and pay cash. This has 
been tried in Madison but with very small results, 
chiefly no doubt because people do not care to go to 
the market wlieu tlie telephone is at their elbow. 

Eetail business has grown up in response to the 
demands of the communit}^; it meets people's wants 
in a way Avhich satisfies them. There are those Avho 
believe in a public market for Madison; that this 
would lower the cost of food, especially for the poorer 
l>eoi)le. This has been tried out in Madison, but the 
city market has proved a failure. 

We have described the very important role the 
retail merchants play in the city's life. Like all 
business men tliey have their troubles and we sliould 
know something about them. It is all a part of that 
general and comprehensive understanding of our city 
which is the aim of this book. 

These merchants are obliged to give credit; only a 
very fcAV attempt to do a cash business. They supply 
us with goods of every sort, deliver them at our doors, 
and trust us to pay for them sometime. These unpaid 
bills become a very serious matter for the dealer. 
He must meet his own bills and he does not like to 
dun his customers. We can but wonder that the re- 
tailer can continue to be courteous, obliging, and 
ready when people are owing him many thousands of 
dollars. Some of these bills lie can never collect; 
sometimes his debtors die or move aAvay without no- 
tice; sometimes they meet with misfortune and can- 
not pay; some pay in part. When at the end of the 
year he takes account of that year's business, a mer- 



MAD180N OUR HOME 91 

chant may find that his losses from people who can- 
not or Avill not pay amount to 8 or 10 per cent of his 
entire sales. Suppose that this is |500.00; he has 
given away |500 in goods to various families and 
individuals in a single year, and Ave must remember 
that he does this every year. If he had given this 
amount of money to the hospital or the associated 
charities he would be proclaimed a public benefactor. 
As it is, his loss is a real hardship and sacrifice which 
the public never knows. 

Merchants are not the only class of people who 
suffer losses by these uncollectable bills. Our physi- 
cians besides doing a large amount of free work for 
poor families are unable to collect many of their 
bills; lawyers, dentists, and all who practice the 
professions, suffer in the same way. And there are 
probably few dealers of any description in Madison 
who would not have the same story of losses to tell. 

The moral training of children should include 
the ethics of paying one's bills. In the home, in the 
school and cliurch, the child should be taught the 
plain truth that to take goods from a dealer, use them 
up, and never pay for them is stealing. The essence 
of theft is to take goods without the owner's consent. 
In this case the owner consents only because he is 
tricked by promise to paj^; that makes sucli an act a 
fraud as Avell as a theft. 

Anotlier trouble for our retailers is that many 
people purchase goods from outside, especially 
through the mail order houses. What should be said 
of this? People who send orders aw^ay claim that 
they can purchase the same goods cheaper than they 



92 MADISON OUR HOME 

are sold here. This claim is made for certain kinds 
of groceries, for hardware, furniture, and household 
utensils. 

Merchants in Madison maintain that people Avho 
patronize the mail order houses do not in many cases 
really save money thereby. It is true that often 
prices as listed in the mail order catalog are lower 
than those asked for the same goods in the retail 
stores of Madison. But, when all the items of cost 
are added, the actual cost of bringing the goods to the 
home of the person ordering, the difference in price 
disappears, and it is found that it is just as cheap 
and in many cases cheaper to purchase the goods over 
the counter of the home merchant. 

Thousands of dollars are sent out of Madison 
every year for goods which might be bought at liome. 
It is probably true that in a large per cent of such 
transactions the purchasers save no money ; they pay 
as much and frequently more, than they would pay 
in Madison for the same goods. Yet it is also true 
that when purchases are made in large quantities, 
as when several families unite to send away orders 
for groceries, hardware, and clothing, there is a sav- 
ing. The only means by which the home dealer could 
meet this would be by selling his goods at a lower 
price. He can do this upon goods sold in large quan- 
tities, but to reduce the price of goods sold at retail 
is very difficult for him to do. He must sell largely 
on credit, he must deliver his sales, he must pay rent, 
taxes, insurance, clerks, and bookkeeper ; and he must 
make a living for himself and his family. All these 
are factors which determine the price at which he 



MADISON OUR HOME 9^ 

can sell liis goods. If lie could sell for cash, if cus- 
tomers paid to have goods delivered, as they do when 
buying out of town, if rent and taxes were loAver, if he 
cut down the salaries of his clerks and bookkeeper, 
then he could sell at a lower price. It should be 
remembered also that lie is competing in business 
with other home dealers, and what is more important 
still, is competing with huge business corporations^ 
the mail order houses, which have millions of capital 
and can therefore buy in very large quantities. They 
often do buy the entire product of large mills and 
factories. They also buy the products of cheap prison 
labor and even goods made in Insane Asylums. It 
is not at all strange that our local dealer cannot sell 
some articles as low as tliey can be purchased from 
the great and rich mail order houses in Chicago. He 
can only state his case and appeal to the good sense 
and civic pride of Madison purchasers. 

It would be a sorry day for all of us if our more 
than 300 retail merchants were driven out of business 
by outside competition. We all owe these merchants 
a great deal; we are dependent upon them for liun- 
dreds of things which we need day by day. They give 
us credit, they accommodate us in many ways, they 
are the principal subscribers of our cliarities, our 
local concerts, lectures, and celebrations. There is 
hardly a business day in the year in whicli they do 
not give money for some public cause or private enter- 
prise. 

Taxation, Prices, Cost of Livincf. 

This discussion of our trade and industry would 
be incomplete without some reference to the matter 



94 MADISON OUR HOME 

of taxation. It is not a very exciting subject for young 
folks but it is a very vital thing for all wlio desire 
to understand conditions in our city. Taxes on prop- 
erty determines the rent. Taxes and rent are the 
most important factors in fixing the price at which 
goods can be sold. Some people claim that Madison's 
property tax is too high. Otliers sa}^ that it is no 
higher than in other cities of the same size in the 
state, such as La Crosse and Racine. Be that as it 
may, the amount of taxes on a building used for pur- 
poses of business determines the amount of rent that 
must be paid. Now the tax money raised in the city 
of Madison is determined by these three things: 

1. How much the city needs to carry on its work 
and pay interest on its debts. 

2. How mucli the city must pay to Dane County. 

3. How much the city must pay to the state. 
These figures are written on page 61. 

All three factors are constanth- groAving larger, 
not only larger actually but larger relatively to the 
growth in i)opulation. Madison's share of the state 
tax is determined by the amount of state expenses, 
and this is beyond the control of Madison people. If 
state expenses vrere lower the city's share would be 
less. When state expenses increase, its share is more. 
Madison can influence this only througii lier repre- 
sentatives in the Legislature. 

City taxes proper, that is money to pay city expen- 
ditures depend on : 

1. How much money is needed to carry on the 
actual business of the city. 

2. How mucli must be paid upon the city debt. 



MADISON OUR HOME 05 

For many years both these amounts have been in- 
creasing. The city has been doing more and more 
new work, employing more people, paying more in 
salaries. It could not raise enough money for all this 
and has borroAved. It has borroAved more and more; 
the debt is gTOAving greater and greater; the annual 
interest charge gets larger and larger ; it now amounts 
to nearly |100,000. Here is one of the most fundamen- 
tal questions in our city's life. It is common practice 
of most American cities to run into debt for such 
improvements as schools, sewerage, and Avater, and 
new streets. These debts Avith the yearly interest 
make it necessary to increase tlie taxes laid on all 
business property and all other property. This is 
the case with Madison. The present A^aluation of all 
property here is |52,000,000. By the laAV Ave can 
borroAV up to one-twentieth of this sum or |2,600,000. 
Madison's debt is at present almost |2,000,000.00. 
Many citizens regard the financial condition of the 
city as serious. Belief from high taxes, high rents, 
and prices might come from an increase in our popu- 
lation. The more there are to help pay the taxes the 
less Avill be the share of each one. But more people 
Avill mean a larger city budget, an extension of 
streets, servers, water; that is, it will mean more 
borroAving of money and an increasing debt. One 
might almost issue a challenge to any citizen of Madi- 
son to point out any AA^ay in Avhich the taxes paid by 
the people may be reduced. And the city might Avell 
offer a roAvard to the man Avho can sIioav Iioav the city's 
debt is ever to be paid off, or cA^en how it is ever to be 
made loAver. And this rcAvard should be doubled 



9G MADISON OUR HOME 

if the deviser of the promising scheme can persuade 
the people to accept it. 

These are the facts and the conditions under 
which Madison's business men are living, and which 
prevent them from selling their goods at loAver prices. 
All those people who send their money out of the 
city instead of patronizing our oavu merchants are 
making it that much Imrder for them to live and face 
conditions for which not they but all of us are resj)on- 
sible. 

Testimony of Certain Dealers. 

One said, "I have been in trade for 30 years in 
the same building. My rent has been raised three 
times in the last fifteen years." 

Another said, ^'My rent has just been increased 
one-sixth because the taxes on this building have been 
increased." 

Another, ^'I will order any article that is listed in 
a mail order catalog and sell it for the same price." 

Another, 'This firm could sell goods at ten per 
cent less than it now asks if people would pay cash." 

Another, ''About three-fourths of all my sales have 
to be charged upon the books; only about one-fourth 
is for cash." 

Another, "We exchange goods bought here and 
replace unsatisfactory or damaged goods." 

The Trades Unions. 

Labor Unions are an important element in the 

industrial life of our city. Workmen employed in 

the same kind of labor have formed associations for 

tlieir mutual benefit. They endeavor to secure the 



:madij-'on our home 97 

best wa^cs for tlieir iiieinliers, to imprDve the condi- 
tions and to sliorten the hours of hibur. An injured 
workman may receive help from the funds of his 
Union and in tlie event of his death his Union will 
meet the expenses of liis burial. 

Madison lias thirty-five of these labor unions, some 
of the largest and most successful are the Barbers, 
Carpenters, Cigar Makers, Electric Railway Em- 
ployees, Electrical Workers, Federation of Labor, 
Hod Carriers, 3Ioulders, Macliinists, Masons and 
Bricklayers, Painters and Decorators, Ilailway Engi- 
neers, Eailway Firemen, Raihvay Trainmen, Steam- 
fitters, Teamsters, TypogTaphers. 

Transportation. 

Facilities for moving merchandise and people 
within the city, and between the city and the outside 
world. 

The demand for easy and rapid transportation 
grows greater each year. People who use modern 
rapid transit are no longer content with the older and 
and slower arrangements. 

Railroads — Madison is connected with the outside 
world by means of three trunk lines in seven divi- 
sions: 

a. The C. & N. W. — main line from Chicago to 
Minneapolis. 

b. The C. & N. W. — Lancaster to Madison divi- 
sion. 

c. The C. & N. W. — Milwaukee to Madison divi- 
sion. 



98 



MADIl-ON OUR HOME 




MADISON OUR HOME 99 

d. The C. M. & St. P.— main line from Chicago to 
St. Paul. 

e. The C. M. & St. P. — Milwaukee to Prairie du 
Chien division. 

f. The C. M. & St. P. — Portage to Madison divi- 
sion. 

g. The Illinois Central — Freeport to Madison 
division. 

The number of freight trains per day : Into Madi- 
son, 23 ; out of Madison, 21. 

Number of passenger trains per day : Into Madi- 
son, 30 ; out of Madison, 31. 

It has been estimated that the revenue to the 
Kailroads on freight received in Madison amounted 
to 11,000,000 for 1915, and that passenger earnings 
were $800,000 for the same year. 

Water Transportation. 

Regular boat lines run on the lakes during the 
open season (June 15 to Sept. 15). 
On Lake Mendota two lines : 

a. The Bernard Boat Co. Launches leave piers 
at No. 623 E. Gorham Street and the Univer- 
sity, touching at Black Hawk, Indianola, 
Mendota Hospital, and Maple Bluff. 

b. The City Boat Co. Launches leave piers at 
foot of N. Franklin Street, N. Carroll Street, 
and University, touching at Black Hawk, Mer- 
rill Springs, Mendota Beach, Westpoint and 
Morris Park. 



100 MADISON OUR HOME 

The usual fare for the ride around the lake is 
twenty-five cents. The distance as the boats run is 
about fifteen miles . 

On Lake Monona two lines : 

a. Wirka's Boat Line. Launches leave foot of 
S. Hancock Street for points on south sliore 
and through the Yahara River to Lake Wau- 
besa. 

b. Askew Boat Co. Launches leave foot of S. 
Carroll Street for Monona Park, Esther Beach, 
Hoboken Heights. 

Round trip fares on Lake Monona are twenty 
cents. 

Thousands of iDeople employ tliese boats in the 
summer for riding to and from the cottages, and to 
bring supplies. A regular mail service is kept up on 
the lakes through the summer season. 

Street Car Lines. 

Fifteen miles of street car lines connect the center 
of the city Avith the extremeties and with some of tlie 
territory beyond the city limits. 

East from the Square : 

To Fair Oaks via Williamson Street and Sixth 

ward. 

To Gisholt Shops via E. Johnson Street. 

West from the Square : 

To St. P. R. R. depot via W. Main Street. 
To South Madison via State and Mills Streets. 
To Breese Terrace, WingTa Park and Ceme- 
teries via State Street and University Avenue. 



MADISON OUR HOME 101 

Cars run every ten minutes on all main lines, and 
every five minutes in the central district. 

Bus Lines. 

At the Capitol Square busses take passengers to 
Middleton and points along the route, "The Madison- 
Middleton Line." 

To College Hills and Mendota Beach, "The College 
Hills Line." 

To Lakewood and intervening points, "The Lake- 
wood Line." 

To Wingra Park, Wingra Addition and Nakoma, 
"The Nakoma Line." 

Besides these there are public liack and auto liv- 
eries, carrying passengers to the railroad depots and 
about the city as needed. Freight is transported by 
the mam^ truck teams and package deliveries. 

7. Education. 

Madison is justly celebrated for its many excel- 
lent educational institutions. As early as 1838 a 
school was opened in one end of a log house and from 
that day to the present Madison people have cheer- 
fully assessed themselves for the support of schools. 

Two kinds of schools in the city : 

Public Schools — ^Private Schools. 

The public school system is supported by general 
taxation. Children between the age of seven and four- 
teen are obliged by law to attend school. 

This system comprises: 

a. The city schools. 

b. Vocational schools. 



102 MADISON OUR HOME 

c. Continuation schools. 

d. Evening schools. 

e. Deaf and dumb schools. 

City schools — twelve schools of the grammar 
grades and the High School (See names and locations 
on page 75). In the grammar schools there are 
3,900 pupils and in the High School, 1,100 pupils; 
total, 5,000. There are GO teachers in the High School 
and 128 in the gi^ades. Total expense for 1915, $237,- 
691. 

Vocational, continuation, and evening schools do 
a valuable work in giving pupils a chance to study 
practical things which will help them to find employ- 
ment. To others the chance is given to remain in 
school part of the day, wliile the rest of the day the 
pupil is at work. And for others there are the eve- 
ning classes in the High School, Harvey School and 
Longfellow School. 

These schools are not under the management of 
the City Board of Education but of the Indus- 
trial Education Board. Some of the work is carried 
on in rooms on the third floor at No. 11 S. Pinckney 
Street; the evening schools are also under the con- 
trol of tlie same board. In the year 1915 there were 
1,428 pupils enrolled in these vocational courses, and 
thirty-one teachers. Cost to the city, |12,000 ; cost to 
state, |G,000. 

All the advantages of the University of Wiscon- 
sin lie at the door of Madison's citizens of all ages. 
No tuition is required from Wisconsin people. For 
courses, see page 164. 



MADISON OUR HOME 103 

Private Schools in ]\Iadmjii. 
Five parochial schools ( see pages 70-81 ) attended 
by 1,172 pupils in 1915. These prepare for High School 
and University in the same way as the city grammar 
scliools; hut in addition provide a system of religious 
instruction which our Catholic citizens regard as of 
the highest importance. The Sacred Heart Academy 
(Edgewood Villa), a school for young women is con- 
ducted by the Dominican Sisters. To these church 
schools are to be added one commercial school, three 
music schools, a school of shorthand, school of teleg- 
raphy, dancing schools, select school for children, cor- 
respondence school. Total in attendance at these 
private and parochial schools, 2,000. 

XoUnvorthy Data on Madison Schools. 

Value of sites — tAvelve public schools $183,900 

Value of buildings, tAvelve public scliools. . . . 612,028 
Value of equipment, twelve public schools. . 16,901 

Total f812,382 

Number of children of school age in city ... .7,868 

Number enrolled in public schools 5,081 

Number enrolled in parochial and private schols. 1,900 

Number enrolled in continuation schools 1,085 

Number enrolled in summer vacation schools. . 215 
Number enrolled in University High School. . . . 252 



Total enrolled 7,221 

Thus only 611 out of a total of 7,868 children and 
youths of school age (from four to twenty years) 



104 



MADISON OUR HOME 




L. _- 



MADISON OUR HOME 105 

are not enrolled in our schools. This is a remarkable 
showing and is surpassed by very few cities in tlie 
United States. 

Number of persons engaged in the work of educa- 
tion here; pupils, teachers and administrators: 

In the city schools, public and private 7,421 

In the University of Wisconsin 7,500 

Giving a grand total of 15,000; a number nearly 
equal to the entire population of the city in 1895, and 
amounts to forty-two per cent of its entire population 
today. 

Other Education Agencies in the City. 
Besides the institutions given there are otlier 
means of a general educational nature. 

Libraries. 
Eight large and important libraries offer rare ad- 
vantages to readers and students of books. 

The city Free Library was the gift of Mr. AndrcAV 
Carnegie at a cost of |75,000. The building stands 
on N. Carroll Street; rooms on the second floor are 
occupied by the University Library School. 

The cit}^ library system consists of the main li- 
brary, the High School library, the sixth ward brancli, 
and the school collections — a total of 36,000 volumes. 
The seven other libraries are : 
University. 
State Historical. 

Wis. Academy of Arts, Letters and Science. 
Agricultural. 
Law School. 



lOG MADISON OUR HOME 

State Law Library. 
Legislative Reference. 

The aggregate of these eight collections is about 
533,000 bound volumes and 248,000 pamphlets; all 
of which are open and (Avith certain restrictions) 
accessible to the public. Estimating the population 
at 40,000, this gives fifteen bound volumes and eight 
pamphlets to ever}^ man, woman, and child. It may 
not be true that Madison babies draw books from 
these libraries; but it seems that every one else must 
do so. There are more than eighteen thousand reg- 
istered borrow^ers of books from the city Free Library 
system (exact number, 18,341) ; and the total circu- 
lation of books has reached the enormous number of 
193,000. 

In Art. The art collection in the State Historical 
Library comprising bronze and marble busts of not- 
able Wisconsin citizens by Trentanove of Italy, and 
portraits in oil, many of which are by the late James 
R. Stuart of this city; two large historical paintings 
by Demming and a battle piece by the Russian, Ver- 
estchargin; the Jastrow collection, 200 specimens of 
metal, china, and w^oodware illustrating the handi- 
crafts of Europe and tlie Orient; reproductions of 
Greek art; American and foreign coins, medals and 
medallions; fifty original impressions of etchings by 
Giovanni Pareneschi of ruins in Rome and Tivoli; 
and the Arundell reproductions of antique European 
frescoes and works by old masters. 

Tlie Art Work in the Capitol. Pediment sculp- 
tures by Adolpli Weinmann, A. Picarelli, and Karl 
Bitter; Kenyon Cox' mosaic figures in tlie rotunda; 



MADISON OUR HOME 



10' 



oil paintings by Edward H. Blaslifleld, Hugo lUillin, 
Albert Herter, and Ken^'^on Cox. 

The Lincoln statute in front of Main Hall, by 
Adolpf Weinmann. 

'"Forward" a bronze female figure, on cai)itol 
grounds, by Jean P. Miner of Madison. 

Female with eagle, in granite in capitol rotunda, 
by Miss Mears. 

In Architecture. Public taste is ]3urified and ele- 
vated by such buildings as the Capitol, State Histori- 
cal Library, City Library, Unitarian Parish House, 
St. PauFs Chapel, Lathrop Hall, the Gisholt office, 
and many bungalows and residences which display a 
feeling for good architecture. 

In Landscape Architecture. The city parks laid 




11'' 

•11, 



OFFICE GISHOLT MANUFACTURING CO. 



108 MADISON OUll HOME 

out under direction of Mr. O. C. Simons of Chicaoo 
are training all people to appreciation of natural 
beauty. The quiet lagoon in Tenney Park where the 
waters mirror the overhanging shrubbery, the flower 
bordered walks in Rrittingham Park, the green ex- 
panse — like an English lawn — of Yilas Park, with the 
great trees and Wingra Lake, the lake sliore drives 
through gTOves and thickets of vines and flowering 
shrubs, past fields of clover or yelloAv grain; these 
views, accessible to everyone are common sources of 
inspiration not found in books. And this appeal to 
our sense of the beautiful is increased by tlie addition 
of the lovely and appealing views of the lakes, the 
streams, and meadows of our country side. (See 
page 52. ) 

In Music. Every form of music is taught in the 
University and in two large private music schools. 
The number of private teachers is large and increases 
year by year. A series of artists' recitals and open 
concerts by the glee clubs, the orcliestra and the bands 
at the University; the great choral union of several 
liundred voices; the Mozart club, the Maennerchor 
and church choirs and choruses, provide training for 
tlieir members and inspiration for the general public. 
The Chicago Symphony orchestra, the U. S. Marine 
Band, and renowned artists like Schumann-Heinck, 
Melba, Evan Williams, Ellnian and Kubelik are fre- 
quently heard here. 

8. Recreation. 
What means does the city afford for amusement, 
for having some fun and a good time? The subject 



MADISON OUR HOME 109 

falls iiit!) two divisious: indoor recreation and out- 
door recreation. 

Indoor Recreation. There are two forms — public 
indoor recreation and private indoor recreation. 

Indoor Recreations — Public. 
1. Theatres. We have one opera house, one vau- 
deville theatre and tAvelve moving picture shows in 
]Madison. Five of these ''movies" are down town and 
seven are community places located at some distance 
from the Capitol Square. All these places of amuse- 
ment and recreation are popular and well patronized. 
A recent survey of the city's means of recreation 
made under the auspices of the Board of Commerce 
shoAvs that tlie average attendance at the moving pic- 
ture places is 4,000 persons on each week day and 
7,000 on Sundays; a weekly average of 31,000. This 
means that almost as many people as the entire pop- 
ulation of Madison attend the movies in a single week. 
It was found that the attendance of children was 
larger in the community places than in the doAvn 
town places and that the prices are as a rule loAver. 
Says the survey : ''The appeal of the moving picture 
is broad, it is patronized by all classes, it is a sub- 
stitute for less desirable things, offering recreation 
of a wholesome nature to men and boys in the eve- 
nings. Very often family groups attend and the 
children are under parental influence. Our moving- 
picture houses are to be congratulated on the number 
of educational and inspirational features exhibited. 
Yet an analysis made of 110 film stories showed some 
objectionable and a few decidedly bad features. 



110 MADIf'ON OLlt HOME 

Scenes laid in saloons or wliicli show murder, drink- 
ing, brawling, and vulgar flirtation are sometimes 
shown here. Whether good or bad pictures are pre- 
sented is largel}^ determined by whether good or bad 
are demanded by tlie public. The public must see to 
it that the best are supported." 

Of the theatres the same report says : ''Good dra- 
ma and music is Avell attended ; an audience of 1,800 
persons is not unknoAvn. Madison can congratulate 
itself on the support given to the best of each. No 
improper performances are tolerated in this city. The 
mayor in person, supported by public sentiment sees 
to it that objectionable features are eliminated where 
possible. Madison is fortunate in having one vaude- 
ville house and in having a large vaudeville attend- 
ance. These conditions make possible a higli class 
of performance. The weekly attendance is estimated 
at 10,000. Occasionally in spite of care on the part 
of the management certain objectionable features are 
seen in Madison vaudeville. And we believe that the 
best people in the city who love to attend the vaude- 
ville now and then will corroborate this remark of 
the survey. It would be a gain to have a more rigid 
censorship and elimination of all shady and too vul- 
gar acts. 

2. Dance Halls. One public dancing academy 
and several public dance halls. 

4. Pool and billiards, fifteen. 

5. Bowling alleys, four. 

6. Gymnasium. There is no wliolly public gym- 
nasium in Madison, but the gvm in the High School 



MADISON OUR HOME 111 

and those in Longfellow and Randall Schools nmj be 
called semi-public as their use is not confined to those 
connected with the schools. 

7. Concerts, lectures, and entertainments. Hun- 
dreds of these are given each season by churches, 
lodges, clubs, and the University. Many are free and 
practically all are open to everybody. When fees are 
asked they are generally small, from ten to tAventy- 
five cents. When artists of note visit the city the 
price of admission is, of course, higher; but we are 
glad to pay for this privilege. 

Indoor Recreations — Private. 

There are nearly two hundred private philan- 
thropic, social, and religious organizations here offer- 
ing recreational features. These privileges are lim- 
ited to the members, their families and friends. The 
following are some of the representative organiza- 
tions of this kind. 

Gisholt Club offers recreation to employees of the 
Gisholt Machine Co. ; membership, 450. 

Madison Turnverein, 150 members — employs a 
paid gymnasium director. 

Madison and University Clubs, membership com- 
bined, 747; composed of business and professional 
men. 

Olympic Club, 82 members. 

Churches — twenty-three societies with total mem- 
bership of 15,454, reported to the Recreation Survey 
that they had held 1,398 social activities of all kinds 
during the year. Eighteen churches had basket ball 
teams ; six, base ball teams ; and two, bowling teams. 



112 MADISON OUR HOME 

Fraternal and Insurance Societies. Madison is 
the home of forty-six organizations of this character, 
(examples, Masons, Odd Fellows, Foresters, Knights 
of Pythias, Woodmen, Knights of Columbus, Catholic 
Knights of Wisconsin). They report a total member- 
ship of 8,611, and held 677 social activities of all 
kinds during the year. 

Labor Unions : Of the thirty-five unions in the city 
nineteen reported a total membership of 1,586, of 
whom 1,352 attended social functions given by the 
unions in the course of the year. 

Patriotic, Musical and Literary Societies: (exam- 
ples. National Guard, Gudrid Reading Circle, Choral 
Union, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Wo- 
man's Clubs, etc.) Thirty-three of these organiza- 
tions in Madison report a total membership of 2,612, 
Avitli 434 entertainments for the year. 

Organizations purely philanthropic. The folloAV- 
ing seven, Bnia Brith, King David Chapter, Consum- 
ers' League, Humane Society, Hospital Association, 
Volunteers of America, City Y. W. C. A., and Queen 
Estlier Circle having a combined membership of 5,773, 
report fifty-one social activities of various kinds for 
the year. 

The recreation offered by the large number of so- 
cieties in the above list consists of all the popular 
forms, such as dancing, card parties, socials, concerts, 
suppers, smokers, literary programs. Several have 
gymnasiums and billiard tables. One has a shooting 
gallery, one a bowling alley, and one a moving pic- 
ture outfit. 



MADISON OUR HOME 113 

Outdoor' RecreaV'ion — Pu h lie. 
Pratically all forms of outdoor recreation in Mad- 
ison are public. 

1. Parks. Nineteen parks and park areas con- 
taining over twelve hundred acres and having a total 
lake frontage of ten miles are open to our people, 
see list, page 36). 

2. Playgrounds. The Burr Jones Field, near City 
Market, and the Olive Jones Field at the Randall 
School, tenth ward. Play spaces are also provided 
in Tenney, Brittingham and Vilas Parks. 

3. Pleasure Drives. Thirty-three miles connect- 
ing the parks and winding through the suburbs, along 
the lake shores and out into the country side. 

4. School Grounds. Twelve. Play leaders are 
provided for several of these during vacations. 

5. Bath Houses. Two, one at Brittingham Park 
and one at Tenney Park, and a swimming instructor 
is on duty at the latter park during the bathing sea- 
son. 

6. Boat Houses and Boats. There are the follow- 
ing public boat houses in Madison : 

On Lake Monona — 

1. Brittingham Park. 

2. End of S. Blair Street. 

3. End of S. Hancock Street. 
On Lake Mendota — 

4. At No. 623 E. Gorham Street— Bernard's. 

5. End of N. Franklin Street— City Boat Co. 

6. End of N. Carroll Street-^City Boat Co. 

7. University. 



114 



MADISON OUR HOME 




MADISON OUR HOME 115 

7. Regular Launch Lines. Two on Lake Men- 
dota and two on Lake Monona. ( See page 99. ) 

]v^ote. — The Weather Bureau shows flags to indi- 
cate wind or storm. There is a life saving launch on 
Lake Mendota. City regulations are that there must 
be inspection of boats, life preservers, and lights. Sail 
boats have the right of Avay. 

8. Ice Boating. This is a highly popular sport. 
Any pleasant day in winter scores of ice boats may be 
seen skimming along with the swiftness and grace of 
swallows. Madison designed ice boats are the fastest 
in this part of the world, winning in 1914 seven cups 
at Lake Winnebago regatta; and the |500 Hearst cup 
at Gull Lake, Michigan. The Northwestern Ice 
Yachting regatta was held in Madison in 1915. 

9. Skating. Thousands of Madisonians and oth- 
ers enjoy this invigorating sport. 

10. Fishing. Though not certain as in former 
years fishing is a recreation for hundreds of our peo- 
ple. Pickerel are caught up to twenty pounds in 
weight; black, yellow and white bass are fairly plen- 
tiful; and when these will not bite the fishermen 
can always fill their baskets with the humble perch. 
Fishing tackle can be hired at the various boat liv- 
eries. The Madison Gun Club has undertaken to stock 
the lakes. 

11. Tennis Courts. Four in Tenney Park and four 
in Brittingham Park. 

12. Baseball Diamonds. Two in Tenney Park, 
one in Brittingham Park and one in Henry Vilas 
Park; the city baseball park, E. Washington Avenue. 



116 MADISON OUR HOME 

13. Football Fields. One in Brittingliam Park 
used by the High School teams. 

14. Camping. Hundred of camps and cottages 
have been built along the lake shores ; many of these 
are let by their owners in the summer. Camping out 
in tents is popular with many people. Permission to 
erect tents should be secured from the land owners. 

15. Winter Coasting. Tlie rights of the young 
people to this exhilarating sport are safeguarded by 
the city which permits certain streets to be used and 
where policemen are placed to prevent accidents. 

16. Toboggan slide on Observatory hill. 

. 17. School Gardens. These gardens provide in- 
struction and healthful work as well as recreation. 
In 1914, one hundred and sixty-five school cliildren 
had gardens. Prepared land, seeds, and expert direc- 
tion w^ere provided by the City Garden Association. 
Application blanks are given out in the schools. In 
1915 the School Board gave 1638.00 for this work. 
Out-door Recreation — Private. 
As before stated most of the means for outdoor 
recreation in our city are of a public nature. A few 
are to be classed as private. 

1. Boats owned by individuals such as canoes, 
launches, sail and ice boats. 

2. Bicylcles and motorcycles. 

3. Automobiles. There are probably 750 of these 
owned in Madison, all used more or less for enjoying 
"God's great out-of-doors." 2,500 people per day 
tlirough the season of pleasant weather ride for rec- 
reation in autos about Madison. 

In the abave summary of recreation no account is 



MADISON OUR HOME 



117 



r 



L_ 




118 



MADISON OUR HOME 



made of the numerous facilities afforded by the Univer- 
sity. Yet as so many Madison people are connected 
in one way or another with the University and have 
the privileges of its means of recreation, these must 
be included in the sum total of our recreational life. 
The great gymnasium, the natatorium, tlie foot ball 
and base ball fields, tennis courts, the toboggan slide 
as Avell as the social amenities and pleasures of the 
clubs, sororities and fraternities are all enjoyed by 
Madison students and others who are entitled to them. 

THE TANK — LATHROP HALL 




UNIVERSITY NAIADS 

Remarks upon the recreational situation in Madi- 
son. Suggestions made by the Recreational Survey. 

Public recreation in Madison would be greatly 
improved b}^, — 

— opening a new park at the foot of N. Hamil- 
ton Street on Lake Mendota ; parking the shore 
of Lake Monona behind ^'machinery row''; and 
securing land for a park near Nelson's Corners 
(intersection of E. Washington Avenue, North, 
Winnebago and Milwaukee Streets). 

— providing a public golf course; a public gymna- 
sium and natatorium for use in winter; and 
more public places for foot ball, base ball, and 
tennis. 



MADISON OUR HOME 119 

— placing an instructor in each public boat house 

to teach siwmming and how to use canoes and 

small boats. 
— having more open air concerts in the parks. 
— more extended use of the scliool grounds for 

summer play under paid director. 
— enlarging, graveling and grading school grounds. 
— more careful safeguarding of children while at 

play. 
— equipping more of the city schools with means 

of recreation; and opening them to the 2,000 

young people in the city who do not attend 

school. 
— opening all public schools for evening use and 

employing a competent person to organize and 

supervise evening activities. 
— building more wharves and platforms and plac- 
ing anchors and buoys for use of small boats. 
— erecting three more bath houses — one at north 

end of Franklin Street, one in Henry Vilas Park, 

and one near the University. 
— increasing the means for preventing accidents 

on the lakes and the more prompt rescue of 

of those whose lives are imperiled. 
— opening ice fields for skating in the parks and 

other level places. 
— introducing the winter sport of ^^curling" and 

erecting a public toboggan slide. 

9. Religious and Moral Forces. 

In every city inhabited by men there are certain 
societies and institutions devoted wholly or in part 



120 MADISON OUR HOME 

to moral training and religious instruction. They 
aim to teach men their duties toAvard themselves, their 
neighbors, their city, their country, and their God; 
and to inspire them with that good will which makes 
them want to fulfill these duties. Such societies and 
institutions we call moral and religious forces. The 
list Ave give, though a long one, is not complete, for 
there are many others in INIadison. 

Homes. There are six thousand homes in Madi- 
son. The home is the greatest factor in the upbring- 
ing of children. With a good father and mother the 
child grows up to shun evil ways and bad habits and 
to love ^'whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
are honest, whatsover things are just, whatsoever 
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, and of 
good report.'' Parents are proud of their children. 
They are their dearest possessions and for them the 
father toils at his daily task and the mother, whose 
work is never done, gives of her love without limit. 
Nothing so pleases and gratifies parents as to see their 
own sons and daughters growing up clean, strong, 
honorable, reliable, and winsome. This rewards them 
for all the money they have spent and all the sacrifices 
they have made for their little ones. And we may be 
sure that in our thousands of homes children are being 
taught the abiding truths and principles of manly 
living. Their feet are led into that path which leads 
to a ^^life of a large usefulness crowned with an hon- 
orable name." 

The Church. If the home is the primary moral 
and religious force in the city, the church holds the 
place next to it. 



MADISON OUR HOME 121 

i 

List of Churches. ; 

First Baptist. 
Holy Redeemer, Catholic. 
St. Bernard, Catholic. 

St. James, Catholic. ; 

St. Patrick, Catholic. ; 

St. Raphael, Catholic. 

St. Paul's, University Chapel, Catholic. i 

First Congregational. 
Pilgrim Congregational. 
Plymouth Congregational. 

Grace Episcopal. j 

St. Andrew's Episcopal. j 

Synagogue, Jewish. j 

Immanuel, Lutheran. 

Bethel, Norwegian Lutheran. j 

Bethel Chapel, Lutheran. | 

English, University Chapel, Lutheran. 1 

Zion, German, Lutheran. \ 

Our Savior's, Lutheran. ! 

St. John's, Lutheran. ' 

Swedish Lutheran. 

Trinity, Lutheran. j 

Evangelical Association. | 

African, Methodist. 

First Methodist. ; 

Trousdale Methodist. I 

People's Church, South Madison. | 

University Methodist. j 

Christ Church, Presbyterian. 
St. Paul's Presbyterian. 
Westminster Chapel, Presbyterian. 



122 MADISON OUR HOME 

First Church of Christ, Christian Science. 

Seventh Day Adventist. 

First Unitarian. 

St. Joseph, Italian, Catholic. 

The churches of these eight denominations, while 
they differ on some matters of credal belief and 
church polity are all at one in their efforts to train 
people in the way of right living. No city could pros- 
per if it were made up of bad people. Every city 
prospers in spite of bad people by the lives and actions 
of the good people. The enterprise, honesty, right- 
eousness, kindliness and purity of its citizens meas- 
ures the real prosperity of any city. These funda- 
mental moral qualities are developed and strength- 
ened by the churches in our city. The primary work 
of the home is followed up and reinforced by the Sun- 
day School and church. It is wrong to take the prop- 
erty of others without their knowledge; it is wrong 
to tell lies ; AA^rong to be unclean in mind or in body ; 
wrong to treat other people unkindly; wrong to be 
lazy, selfish, complaining ; wrong to use bad language 
and to curse. 

Sunday schools and churches teach these essential 
things. They teach them as a part of religion which is 
one of the greatest, and for very many men and wo- 
men, the greatest power in human life. A life free 
from sin and evil: a life well pleasing to God — such 
a life the church declares to be the only happy and 
satisfactory life. By means of Bible reading and 
study, by hymns, prayers and masses, and by sermons 
the church seeks to make such a life attractive and 
compelling. 



MADISON OUR HOME 123 

ScJiool life trains children in the right way and 
instructs them in many practical duties. Children 
should be prompt: they should come to school with 
clean hands, faces and clothes: they should be quiet 
and attentive, studious, kind and honorable in dealing 
with school mates. They should feel pride in the 
school building and school grounds and help to keep 
them clean and attractive. They should use the 
school books, maps, etc., the gym or the playgrounds 
as though these things belonged to them. Day by day 
through the long school year the teachers drill and 
train their pupils to these habits. And we ought all 
of us to feel how much we owe to them — these faith- 
ful, hard working teachers — in the right training of 
our future citizens. 

Fraternal Orders and Lodges. 
There are forty-six lodges in our city, and they 
have 8,614 members. In some membership is limited 
to men over 21 years of age. Others are composed of 
women only; still others take in both men and wo- 
men. (Few admit men under 21 or women under 
18.) Most are therefore confined to adults. Their 
moral instruction and religious training supplements 
in part work of schools, churches and homes. We have 
spoken before of the social and recreational features 
of the fraternal societies. (See page 112.) Many of 
them provide insurance against accident and sick- 
ness. The great purpose of them all is fraternity. 
With this idea as a foundation, groups of men or wo- 
men are gathered together into one place, in a lodge or 
hall. They have a ceremony and ritual with badges. 



124 MADISON OUR HOME 

collars, and costumes for the officers. In this ritual 
and in the instructions given in the several degrees 
stress is laid upon the duties pertaining to brother- 
hood and sisterhood. In this way a high, fine spirit 
is evoked, which is an essential part of all true reli- 
gion. So it comes to pass that through this spirit of 
brotherly and sisterly good will these thousands of 
lodge members are helped to become better men and 
women, better fathers and mothers, better citizens of 
the community. They have a real place and a large 
one among the moral and religious forces of our city. 

The Young Woman's Christian Association carries 
on a varied work among the girls and young women 
of the city. It owns valuable property on State 
Street, running through to N. Carroll Street. Oppor- 
tunities are offered for improvement along four lines : 
physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual. Classes 
in cooking, music, dressmaking, basketry, and many 
other lines are open. The Association owns a country 
home two miles west of the city ; the property consist- 
ing of an eleven room house and four acres of land, 
affords room and means for summer outings. 

As tliis book goes to press the sum of |156,000 has 
just been pledged by Madison citizens for the erection 
of a Y. M. C. A. 

The Associated Charities has headquarters at No. 
10 S. Webster Street in rooms furnished by the city. 
Almost every church and philanthropic organization 
in the city helps maintain the Associated Charities, 
which is a central bureau and clearing house for them 
all. A great many people, such as tramps and beg- 
gars are unworthy of the money for which they so- 



MADISON OUR HOME 125 

licit; they are professional paupers, and all persons 
to whom they apply should refer them to the Asso- 
ciated Charities. Besides the help provided by the 
County Commissioner of the Poor to destitute fami- 
lies in Madison, the Charities gives further care ; such 
as delicacies for the sick, hospital treatment, friendly 
visits, and when justifiable, money is given. To give 
cheer and comfort is the essential thing about such 
work. 

In one of its rooms the Charities has opened a 
Day Nursery where Avorking mothers may leave their 
children to be cared for. A successful sewing class 
of nearly one hundred girls, conducted by ladies of 
the Charities, meets in the city library. A dental 
clinic for free examination and treatment of children 
is located in the Steensland block, Mifflin Street. 
Madison dentists generously give their time to this 
work, whose beginning, equipment and management, 
are to be credited to the Associated Charities. 

Woman's Club. Owns its own building at No. 232 
W. Oilman Stret. A varied and important work is 
carried on, covering such fields as education, history, 
home economics, literature, music and social service. 
With a membership of five hundred, the club has a 
large influence and has initiated several reforms in 
the city. 

Catholic Woman's Club. Has 517 members, en- 
gaged in religious, educational and civic work for the 
benefit of the community. 

Attic Angels, an association of young women ; its 
principal work is the providing of a visiting nurse for 
the care of the sick among the poor. 



12G MADISON OUR HOME 

JuYenile Court. This court was instituted in 
1913. When boys or girls are arrested they are not 
brought into the common criminal court, but into this 
^^juvenile court." The aim is to do all that is possible 
to prevent them from becoming habitual offenders. 
They do not come into contact with older criminals 
in the jail; they are put on probation (that is, given 
another chance), or paroled (that is, allowed to go 
upon their own promise of good conduct) ; but they 
must report themselves to the ^Trobation officer". 

The Humane Society whose motto is "Be kind to 
dumb creatures." 

Business and Industry. Success in business re- 
quires the best qualities in any man ; it demands that 
men shall be obliging, courteous, reliable and honest. 
The business men of Madison have won and hold an 
excellent reputation, and they are always looking for 
boys of good character and promise. 

The University is one of the great forces making 
for righteousness. The many scholarly christian men 
and women upon its faculty are constantly stimulat- 
ing and enkindling the minds of youth and "shaping 
their lives to finer issues." In civic affairs these same 
faculty members have co-operated in efforts for the 
moral improvement of Madison. 

10. Civic Purposes and Ideals. 
Recall how the city looks from the Capitol dome. 
A compact region of buildings, houses, streets, and 
parks, all forming a single community — ^your city of 
Madison. You must have received a new impression : 
you saw as you probably never did before how all the 



MADISON OUR HOME 127 

different parts and elements are bound and held to- 
gether into a civic whole. As we look down upon 
the city and see it in its unity, we ask '4ias the city a 
single mind, — a community mind?" That is ^'are 
there thoughts, beliefs, purposes, which all the people 
share?" If there are then we say Madison has a com- 
munity mind. 

Let the children think of their own school. Every 
one in your school agTees to certain things and is 
willing to help do them. All— pupils and teachers 
together — unite to keep good order in the building 
and on the play ground; to respond quickly to the 
fire drill. This is the school purpose, its common 
mind. And just so in the city. It is larger than the 
school; it has many more people but they all want 
certain things and try to get them done. What are 
some of these things? 

1. Safety for life and property. 

2. Health. 

3. Law and order. 

4. Transportation. 

5. Business success and growth. 

6. Cleanliness and beauty. 

7. A larger and better city. 

8. Education and training for life. 

THE COMMUNITY MIND. 
1. Life and Property Shall Be Safe. 
When a school boy sees some little fellow threat- 
ened by a dog it is natural for him to seize a stone or 
stick and drive the barking creature away. This is 
an assertion of the school boy's citizenship ; he is help- 



128 MADISON OUR HOME 

ing make the streets and sidewalks safe for the 
smaller children. We may say that the community 
speaks in this school boy's act. Just so it is with all 
the people in Madison, — with a few exceptions. All 
the men and women, working men, merchants, bank- 
ers, lawyers, professors, priests, and ministers have 
the same purpose to make life and property safe. If 
this were not so people would not come here to live, 
to enter business, build homes, and educate their 
children. People move away from an unsafe town. 

Criminals imperil the safety of a town. They do 
harm to people; they injure or steal their property. 
A criminal cannot be a true citizen, for a citizen is 
one who shares the common purpose to make and keep 
a city safe. 

Provisions for Safety of Life and Property, 

State laws and the ordinances passed by the city 
council are largely made for the purpose of protect- 
ing life and property. State laws are enforced by the 
District Attorney. City ordinances are enforced by 
the mayor, the police, the firemen, health officer and 
building commissioner. These laws forbid people to 
injure one another; they forbid fighting, duelling, 
drunkenness, kidnapping. They forbid the erection of 
inflammable buildings; of unsafe or unhealthy houses ; 
of any but fire proof structures in the central parts 
of the city. They forbid breaking into houses or other 
buildings; setting fire to them or injuring them in any 
way ; and the taking of another's goods or possessions 
by fraud or theft. They forbid fast driving in the 
streets, carrying fire arms, and use of explosives. 



MADISON OUR HOME 129 

When anybody does any of these prohibited things 
he is punished by a fine of money or by imprisonment. 
The punishment of a man for law breaking means 
really this: it is the community turning upon the 
man who has hurt it. The city says to a criminal: 
"You shall not be permitted to harm us all by making 
life, or property unsafe. If you are not punished 
others will be emboldened to follow your example. 
Therefore you shall be punished.'' 

The criminal thus rouses the entire community 
against himself; a foolish thing to do. But lawbreak- 
ers are always fools. 

We have a good example of the determination on 
the part of our people to make life and property safe 
in the Fourth of July celebrations of the past few 
years. Ordinances were passed forbidding the sale or 
use of large fire crackers and dangerous kinds of fire 
works. A voluntary committee of citizens has organ- 
ized and carried out each year a fine program of a 
popular and patriotic nature in Avhich many elements 
of Madisons life have taken part. As a result the 
number of fires has been reduced and we have no more 
deaths or dreadful accidents. 

2. The City Shall Be Healthful. 

This is the second common purpose in the com- 
munity mind. Life is not only to be protected from 
robbers, incendiaries, and auto speeders; it is also to 
be protected from disease. A city full of sick folks 
and invalids would not be a very attractive place. 

Provisions for healthf ulness : 



130 MADISON OUR HOME 

a. Pure and Sufficient Water Supply. 
Water constitutes a large part of all that we eat 
and drink ks well as of our blood, our tissues and 
bodily parts. Without good water no city can be 
healthy. Many diseases^ — especially typhoid fever — 
come from drinking impure water. Our city water 
is draAvn from artesian wells which tap the water of 
a subterranean lake lying beneath the limestone for- 
mation on which the city stands. The water system 
is being enlarged and improved at a cost of $270,000. 
When completed it will have a capacity of 9,000,000 
gallons per day, enough for a population of 50,000. 

b. Food Must Be Pure and Wholesome. 
Impure and decayed meats, fish, fruits, bad mill^, 
canned goods, and candies, cause sickness. The laws 
of Wisconsin are strict upon this subject. Various 
agencies in our city co-operate with the officers of 
the law in keeping those elemental necessities, water 
and food wholesome. Our physicians report all cases 
of diseased or spoilt foods offered for sale; and the 
Woman's Club with a membership of 500 has been 
vigilant and active in this matter. 

c. Control of Epidemics. 

Whenever measles or small pox break out any- 
where in the city the cases are at once quarantined at 
home or in the contagious hospital. The homes are 
disinfected and each case is watched and controlled 
by a physician till all danger is passed. 

Disease germs often infect used clothing. When 
churches and other societies sell second hand clothes 



MADISON OUR HOME 131 

at "rummage sales", all articles are disinfected by 
an officer from the Board of Health. 

d. Prevention of SicJcness. 

Important as it is to control disease it is much 
more important and more wise to prevent it. This is 
done by studying the causes of disease. One learns 
that flies carry disease ; so our city orders all garbage 
covered in air tight cans or boxes. Mosquitos carry 
disease. The tiny '^pests" spread one of the most fatal 
of all diseases — the yellow fever. So our health offi- 
cer and our doctors urge us to fill up wet, marshy 
places ; to remove buckets, tin cans and anything 
where rain water may collect as breeding j)laces for 
mosquitoes. We hardly need urging to put screens 
upon our doors and windows, and a little kerosene 
in a Avater hole will kill the mosquitoes breeding in it. 
While no law compels us to do so, all the people living 
in tliis city are fast learning to follow the advice of 
physicians; to protect and preserve their teeth, eyes, 
ears, and throats; to have diseased adenoids, tonsils 
and other parts treated or removed by the surgeon; 
to eat more rationally and take proper exercise ; and 
to use the hospitals with their facilities and equip- 
ments all directed to the saving of people's lives and 
health. 

e. Medical Inspection in the Schools. 

This work is under the direction of a trained phy- 
sician and school nurse. All cases of contagious dis- 
ease are removed from the school. The children's 
eyes are examined, also their noses, ears and throats. 



132 MADISON OUR HOME 

Any child in need of treatment may be cared for 
without cost if the parents wish it so. Open air rooms 
are provided for weak and anaemic children, and a 
free dental clinic is maintained by the Associated 
Charities. 

3. Law and Order. 

The people of Madison agree that the laws shall be 
enforced. No person, nor any grouj) or class of per- 
sons shall be a law unto themselves. Whether a man 
is rich or poor, a layman or a professional makes no 
difference. 

Suppose a man neglects to cut the Aveeds growing 
on his vacant lot. • Then these weeds will spread into 
the lawns and yards of the whole neighborhood. The 
city ordinances forbid this; the lot owner is warned 
by the street superintendent; if he does nothing the 
city sends men to cut the weeds and compels the owner 
to pay the cost. In tliis way the city makes known 
its purpose to enforce the laws and compels all men 
to obey them. We can see that this must be so ; there 
would be no law and no order if each man were al- 
lowed to do as he pleased. 

People sometimes become excited and gather in 
the streets; speeches are made to inflame them. This 
has happened during a political campaign. In Madi- 
son students have occasionally shown their indigna- 
tion, or merely vented their excitement by removing 
small buildings, carrying away ladders, gates or boxes 
and burning them. It is out of such things that the 
most serious riots grow; riots that cause the looting 
and destruction of houses, and the maiming — often 



MADISON OUR HOME 133 

the killing — of human beings. No city will allow 
things contrary to the community purpose. 

Men are arrested for speeding their autos; for re- 
sisting an officer of the law in the performance of 
liis duty; for obstructing streets or sidewalks; for 
peddling goods without a license. These may seem 
rather trivial offenses, but are not really so. For if 
one person may do these things then all persons may 
do them. Law and order would then be at an end. 

It is well for us to think of this when we are 
tempted to do something contrary to the law. We do 
not want to bother about the weeds on a vacant lot 
or to clean the snow from the sidewalk or put the 
garbage in airtight cans. 

When snow is soft boys like to make snow balls 
and with them bombard passing teams and people. 
Boys and girls love to slide down the smooth, steep 
streets; an apple tree tempts with its ripening treas- 
ures; a flower bed with its bright tulips, asters, and 
roses. A neighbor has left his new rake or hoe out 
over night; and bicycles are often left by some care- 
less boy or girl to stand all night against the curbing. 

What would result if we all permitted ourselves 
to do these acts and to take these things? Burdock, 
dandelions, pig weed, and quack grass would mul- 
tiply and spread; lawns and gardens would become 
infestetd; and all who tried to have good gardens 
or lawns would be put to much trouble, labor, 
and cost. Snow left on the sidewalk would make 
walking difficult, and after a heavy storm quite im- 
passable; people would have to go in the streets, run- 
ning the danger of accidents from cars or vehicles. 



134 MADISON OUR HOME 

Garbage tlirown out in the yard or carelessly buried, 
would cause vile stenches, swarms of flies, and an 
increase of sickness. If young people may claim the 
streets for coasting, traffic must cease on these streets, 
or else there will be many accidents. Promiscuous 
snow balling would frighten horses, anger pedestri- 
ans and often cause serious injury to their eyes and 
heads. Should boys take apples or flowers when they 
feel like it, they would later become criminals; very 
soon no one w^ould plant another fruit tree or make a 
flower garden. When things are stolen if left out 
overnight the neighborliood gets a bad reputation; 
people move out and others will not come in. If 
stealing should become general the entire city is 
tainted; it has a bad name. Suppose for a moment 
that such things were being done here in Madison. 
Suppose that everybody felt himself privileged to do 
these injurious things against the peace and good or- 
der of the place. Hundreds and hundreds of people 
have been coming here to enter business, to buy homes, 
and to educate their children. But they would come 
no more to a city with such a bad name. And when 
people cease coming to a city for such a reason, it 
means the decline and ruin of that city. Only a city 
of fools and lunatics would allow this to happen. 
Right minded and sensible people, such as dwell in 
Madison insist on the maintenance of law and order. 

4. Quick and Easy Transportation. 

A fourth common purpose ; there shall be suitable 
means for transportation of goods and traffic of vehi- 
cles and passengers. In a city this corresponds to 



MADISON OUR HOME • 135 

the circulation of the blood in the human body. Peo- 
ple need to get about and to pass freely to all parts of 
the city. Food and goods of every kind must be reg- 
ularly distributed. 

Provisions for transportation. These are given on 
page 99. 

In general summary — streets, sidewalks, street 
cars, motor vehicles and horse vehicles and bicycles. 
Rules are made by the city for all these. Foot pas- 
sengers must not fill up the streets but keep to the 
sidewalks. Street cars must run on a certain sched- 
ule and must stop at street crossings. Truck teams 
may not stand anywhere the owners please, but on 
the space provided at the east side of the city hall. 
Autos must approach and stop at curbings on their 
right; they may not remain longer than fifteen min- 
utes in the congested districts. 

In the central portion of the city they must be 
parked only on the four avenues, viz : Wisconsin Ave- 
nue, Monona Avenue, E. Washington Avenue and W. 
Washington Avenue. 

We have had some collisions and some deaths upon 
our streets. We must try, all of us must try, to pre- 
vent such accidents. We must learn the "rules of the 
road," and obey them with true public spirit. These 
are some things to be known and remembered by all 
who walk or drive in our streets. They are taken 
from the city traffic ordinances : 

"Moving vehicles shall keep to the right; in pass- 
ing other vehicles keep to the left, but do not pass at 
street intersections. When stopping, signal to those 
behind you. Speed limit, fifteen miles per hour ; in 



136 MADISON OUR HOME 

passing sckool grounds, and in the parks and ceme- 
teries the limit is eight miles per hour. Tliese speed 
regulations do not apply to fire engines, police patrol, 
ambulances, and U. S. mail wagons. 

Vehicles upon electric car tracks shall turn out 
upon signal from the car. 

No one under sixteen years of age is permitted 
to drive a motor vehicle within city limits, unless 
accompanied by an adult. No intoxicated person is 
permitted to drive a motor vehicle. All such vehicles 
shall not back unless absolutely necessary. All such 
vehicles shall be equipped with horn or bell, to be 
sounded when backing or when crossing any sidewalk. 

Before crossing any sidewalk leading into an alley 
or building, motors are to come to a full stop. 

Motors not to be driven without mufflers or with 
mufflers open. 

All motors to have proper brakes. 

When horses are frightened motors are to stop. 

Motors not to pass street cars when taking on or 
discharging passengers. No vehicle shall stop with 
left side to the curb; none shall stop on sidewalks or 
within space of street intersections; none to be left 
within fifteen feet of a fire hydrant. 

Vehicles shall not be left unattended more than 
fifteen minutes on the west side of Carroll Street, the 
south side of Main Street, the east side of Pinckney 
Street, or the north side of Mifflin Street, where these 
streets border the Capitol park ; nor on either side of 
E. Main Street between Pinckney Street and S. Web- 
ster Street; nor on either side of State Street, between 
Carroll ajad Frances Streets. 



MADISON OUR HOME 137 

Vehicles shall not stand unattended in front of 
buildings where signs have been posted forbidding 
them. Every motor to have suitable lights which 
shall be lighted during the period from half an hour 
after sunset to half an hour before sunrise. Lights 
not to be more than sixteen candle power. Heavy 
freight vehicles to have tires three inches wide. 

Police have control in congested traffic districts. 
Articles injurious to tires, such as glass, nails, or 
wire, shall not be thrown upon the streets. Kubbish, 
garbage, sand, ashes when drawn through streets 
shall be enclosed in well made boxes. 

5. Eight Conditions for Carrying on Trade and 
Industry (or Business). 

Madison people are unanimous in their determi- 
nation that business shall have such helps and safe- 
guards as it needs. Anything that seriously inter- 
feres with business will not be allowed. Any person 
who should try to drive people out of business would 
not be tolerated. When a heavy fall of snow blocks 
the streets, the city puts men to work at once clearing 
the lines of traffic. Property owners must clear their 
own sidewalks. The cost of this Avork caused by a 
heavy snow fall often amounts to thousands of dol- 
lars, which is willingly paid that trade and transpor- 
tation may not stop. If a building burns and its 
walls fall into the street, the city causes the obstruc- 
tion to be taken away immediately as it would inter- 
fere with business. 

For the same reason if a man steals goods from a 



138 MADISON OUR HOME 

merchant, or breaks his windows, or removes his sign, 
or sets fire to his store he would be arrested and pun- 
ished. 

Business is dependent on transportation. Great 
sums — hundreds of thousands of dollars — have been 
paid out for street improvement and extension. Roads 
and streets are laid out in the new sections even before 
any houses are built. 

6. Cleanliness and Beauty. 

The purpose to have a clean and beautiful city is 
not as prominent and strong an element in the com- 
munity mind as the five other purposes we have just 
been mentioning. 

This is matter of good taste, of education and 
training in appreciation of beautiful things and beau- 
tiful places. From the first establishment of the city 
there have not been wanting some who were thus 
trained and appreciative. These people kept their 
yards in order; planted trees and shrubbery; made 
beds and gardens of flowers; and kept their houses, 
sheds and fences painted. They even cleaned the 
streets in front of their homes and protested when 
their neighbors threw ashes and rubbish in the gutter. 
But the greater number of Madison dAvellers were, in 
former years, not deeply concerned with such things. 
A city clean and beautiful was not then a part of 
the public concern; not a conspicuous part at least. 
Most people came here to get a foothold; to open a 
store, rent or build a house; and many came who had 
little or no property, seeking work to do. It was 
believed Madison would grow rapidly and become a 



MADISON OUR HOME 139 

large cit}^ Perhaps people thought they could 
postpone beautifying the town till more came, 
when there would be more money for improvements. 
Meanwhile they had themselves to make a living in 
this new location. So they used to keep horses, cows, 
pigs, and poultry in the most central parts of the 
city. These animals were at home in Capitol park; 
the hens roosting and pigs sleeping in the base- 
ment of the State House. They had freedom of the 
streets, making things lively and interesting with 
their grunting and cackling. It was many years 
after the first settling of Madison that the plant- 
ing of shade trees was undertaken by the city. Little 
thought was given to the attractiveness of school 
grounds; sheds, cheap boat houses, and fishing shacks 
w^ere built upon the lake shore; and all manner of 
rubbish was thrown there. Several of the street ends 
opening upon the lakes, affording lovely vistas across 
the water, were carelessly allowed to be blocked up 
with buildings — the lake end of King Street is an 
example. Until the past few years the city's principal 
streets were rougher and poorer than the country 
roads. With a very few exceptions the older houses 
were built with little attention to beauty of lines or 
harmony of parts. 

At the present day all this is changed or is rapidly 
changing. Every one who remembers Madison as it 
was fifteen years ago is conscious of the gain in its 
general appearance and in the impressions made upon 
visitors. In the first years of this century tlie visitor 
coming from Chicago first saw our city across Monona 
bay — a most favorable impression. Approaching 



140 MADISON OUR HOME 

nearer, lie looked out on a low wide marsh, covered 
with ^'cat tails,'' ashes, broken iron, and waste of 
every form, size and hue. (Where Brittingham park 
now is.). As his train slowed down for the station 
he saw a high bank lined with the backs of houses; 
with sheds, privies, and general rubbish filling the 
yards. Arriving in town he saw the old Capitol half 
ruined by the fire; rode over muddy, rough streets 
to a hotel which he might well call ^'the worst in the 
state." On Capitol square there was not a single 
modern business block; nor a single modern store 
front; nor an elevator in the whole city except in the 
State Capitol. 

These facts make plain the improvements of the 
last fifteen or even the last ten years. Civic taste has 
been developed ; civic pride aroused. Besides the new 
and beautiful public buildings, new business houses 
and modern store fronts, this increase of good taste 
is seen in the many miles of fine smooth streets, in the 
ornamental street lights, the improved architecture 
of dwellings, and the attention given to lawns and 
gardens. 

Among the agencies which have helped to bring 
about this sentiment favorable to civic beauty are: 

The University Faculty. 

The Capitol Building Commission. 

Park Association. 

Woman's Club. 

Art Association. 

Board of Commerce and City Council. 

There remains yet much to be accomplished. Good 



MADISON OUR HOME 141 

taste is a plant of slow growth. It may, however, 
be truthfully claimed that civic beauty is now^ a clear 
and conscious purpose. 

7. A Larger and Better City. 

How far is this a conscious civic purpose? A lar- 
ger city; this certainly has been the general idea. 
But more a hope than a conviction; a sort of vague 
trust rather than a resolute purpose. The city would 
grow as the trees do ; inevitably and by nature. True 
enough trees do grow by nature ; they grow much bet- 
ter when helped by the art and skill of man. So if a 
city groAvs, or means to grow in size, the citizens must 
co-operate. 

What causes the growth of a city? What brings 
people into it as settlers? Wliy, the very things we 
have been talking of; the common mind of the city. 
But first they would need to know something about 
the city; where it is situated, its surroundings, its 
people and institutions, its tax rate, death rate, 
amount of rainfall, water supply, its general reputa- 
tion; and what chances it offers for employment and 
trade. 

Agencies giving information about Madison. 

Her public institutions — notably the Capitol and 
the University. 

The newspapers and periodicals published here. 

Railroad folders, time tables, and circulars, giv- 
ing general information about all towns and cities on 
their several lines. 

Goods manufactured here and sold outside. 



142 MADISON OUR HOME 

Six lumdred traveling men avIio live here, and 
who travel all over Wisconsin and the Mississippi 
valley states. 

Conventions, bringing visitors from all parts of 
the United States. 

The Board of Commerce through its folders, 
pamphlets, maps, and books giving information about 
all that goes on. Information more complete, reliable 
and convenient than from any other source. 

Through these agencies, for the first time in its 
life Madison is now being advertised to the world. 
This advertisement is not exaggerated and over-col- 
ored and boastful; but accurate and reliable. It is 
true that not much is said about the city's faults, and 
this is only natural. For when people are proud 
of their city and love it they do not tell its faults to 
strangers. 

We know, of course, that ours is not a perfect city. 
Bad people are to be found here; some of these are 
Madison people; some are only visitors and new- 
comers. These people who lack the spirit and pur- 
pose of true citizenship sometimes commit crimes. 
Newspapers sometimes write up tliese in the most 
startling and sensational ways. They print pictures 
of the place where the crime was done and of the 
person who did it. They denounce the police and the 
mayor; they scold and scream at the city as a Avhole 
as though it were guilty — and indifferent. These 
lurid stories go all over Wisconsin and all over the 
United States. They hurt the city by giving it a bad 
reputation before the world. We may ask ; what is the 
use of such newspaper exploitation of crime? What 



MADISON OUR HOME 143 

good does it do? Who is helped by it or made better? 
Every good citizen regrets the commission of crime. 
But ours is not a criminal city. The court records 
show there is less crime here than in most cities of 
the same size in the country. These court records 
also show another important thing: that a large part, 
—indeed the larger part of the persons brought to 
trial are not Madison people at all but come from out- 
side. In view of these facts do we not agree that it 
is wrong to the city to print sensational stories of 
crimes and send them all over the land? There is no 
lack of good and true tilings to say about Madison. 
It holds out very solid advantages and offers rare 
and exceptional privileges to people who wish to come 
here and live. The faults of Madison are such as 
will be found in all cities to a greater or a lesser de- 
gree. Agencies are already at Avork here; movements 
are already on foot which will do away with these 
faults and make our beloved city more clean, healthy, 
beautiful and desirable. 

Let us remember and tell to each other and to all 
the world, that our city will not tolerate crimes or 
criminals ; that her educational advantages take rank 
with those of any other city on the American conti- 
nent; that all who come here admire her location and 
natural surroundings; that she has expended over 
1300,000.00 for the development of 282 acres of 
parks and 30 miles of driveways ; that she is bonding 
herself for half a million dollars for sewerage and wa- 
ter enlargement; that she has eight libraries with 
more than 400,000 volumes and 250,000 pamphlets; 
that there are 1,100 pupils in her High School and 



144 MADISON OUR HOME 

more than 7,000 in the University; her death rate is 
only 7 per thousand; that her physicians, lawyers, 
ministers and teachers are unsurpassed in training, 
in skill and efficiency by those of any other city ; that 
she has a Commercial Board of more than 1,000 men 
united in the common purpose of promoting the city's 
prosperity and growth ; that more than 300 new build- 
ings valued at one and one-half millions were erected 
here in 1915 and that the valuation of all property 
increased by more than a million dollars. 

These are some of the true, good things to say 
about Madison ; good and true things that reveal the 
city's vitality and prophesy her future enlargement, 
prosperity and power. We are not so narrow and 
so small as to want these things only for ourselves and 
to prevent others from sharing them with us. We 
would not put up signs warning people away as signs 
are posted on private grounds telling us to keep off. 
We want rather to open all avenues, all lines and 
ways Avhich shall bring ncAV people here. This we 
can all help to do. 

School children may do much to make Madison 
attractive. They can co-operate by — 1. Making the 
grounds about their own homes neat and clean ; cut- 
ting the laAvn, making flower beds and gardens, gath- 
ering up and destroying all Avaste, painting, and 
training vines to gTow over porches and fences ; 2 — By 
helping to keep the school buildings and yards clean 
and free from waste and rubbish : 3 — By their con- 
duct on the playgrounds, in tlie parks and along the 
lake shore; by not throAving doAvn papers and shells, 
to be tramped in the grass or bloAvn about and into 



MADISON OUR HOME 145 

the shrubbery and flower beds; by not taking flowers 
or breaking down the rose and other flower bushes; 
by always appearing at school and on the streets with 
neat clothes, clean hands, nails and faces; by always 
being polite, courteous and obliging to everyone and 
especially to strangers inquiring their way about the 
city. Politeness thus shoAvn to a stranger may be the 
very thing that determines him to remove his family 
to Madison. He will tell them, ''Why the children 
are so neat, and bright and obliging! That must be 
a good place for our children ; we Avant them to know 
such gentlemanly boys and ladylike girls; we will go 
there to live.'' 

Young folks can advertise the city in another way. 
Information about Madison in the form of pamphlets 
and folders can be had for the asking at the Board 
of Commerce. These may be inclosed in letters or 
sent separately to relatives and friends who live in 
other places. 

Several times each year groups of Madison young 
folks make trips to other towns and cities in the state. 
They go to play football, baseball, and basketball; 
or to give concerts; or to compete in debates. When 
they are away at such times our boys and girls are 
advertising Madison. They may not realizee it; but 
their deportment on the train, on the ball field, or the 
public platform is marked by everyone who sees or 
hears them. ''That's a Madison team," they say. And 
if they can add, "What a fine looking, well set up lot 
of youngsters the}^ are ! And so Avell mannered ; why 
I rode with them all the way and not a vulgar word 
did I hear. They sang some fine songs too; 'twas 



146 MADISON OUR HOME 

good to hear them/' — if, we sa}^, people can say such 
things of our young people, they are receiving the 
very best impression possible. Few things will serve 
our city better than this manly and womanly conduct 
on tlie part of our young people at such times. 

In these ways our younger citizens may co-operate 
with the older ones in the common purpose to make 
the city known abroad and so to promote its growth. 

8. Education and Training for Life. 
This has ahvays been a conspicuous civic iDurpose 
and is today clearer and stronger than ever. Tlie 
school budget of |237,000 for the past year is proof 
that Madison means to give the best and most thor- 
ougii training to all her children. The varied forms of 
culture which are offered to all aud tlie adantages tliey 
confer upon our citizens are presented on pages 101 
and 163. 



MADISON OUR HOME 14 < 



The Future 

^^Wlio knows the future? Who can read its i)a.i»es, 
Turning them over with divining power? 
We can look backward thro' the lapse of ages : 
We can look forward not a single hour.'' 

What the poet says in these lines is true of some 
things, but not quite true of others. We cannot tell 
beforehand just the names of the people who will be 
killed by accidents which could have been prevented; 
nor the exact place nor the days when such death will 
happen. But we can say that the danger of such 
accidents multiplies with the growth of a city. Just 
as good parents look ahead and make plans for th^ 
future of their children so should we today take 
thought of the city of tomorrow. Sometimes a father 
makes the mistake of treating a grown-up boy as 
though he were still a child. Such fathers seem un- 
able to realize that a child will grow up, and that 
when he is eighteen years old and six feet high he 
will need more freedom and room than he had when 
he wore knickerbockers. 

Madison is passing out of its boyhood period into 
man's estate. It has been wearing knickerbockers ; it 
must now provide for itself the attire of a full grown 
man. 

In the years that are gone our city council and 
our citizens generally did not realize as perhaps they 
should have done, the need of providing for the cer- 
tain growth of the city. They provided for its imme- 



148 MADISON OUR HOME 

diate needs but not for its future needs. For in- 
stance, when the water pipes to supply the western 
end of the city were laid they w^ere only four inches 
in size; the}^ are too small for tlie present demand. 
Pipes recently laid are fourteen inches in diameter. 

We will consider the growth of Madison and what 
should be done to provide for it. Let us try to imag- 
ine its expansion for the next half century. This 
seems like a long look aliead. It is a long look ahead 
— ^^^et many readers of this book Avill then be here to 
see for themselves what changes the fifty years have 
made in the city. 

Once more taking our stand in the dome of the 
Capitol look at the city as it lies there beneath us 
today. It covers the glacial isthmus betAveen Monona 
and Mendota. We can see the city limits : on the east 
they reach over into the town of Blooming Grove; 
to the w^est they extend to the farther end of the Lake 
Wingra. Where will the city grow? In what direc- 
tion will its limits be extended? There can be no 
doubt that Madison will keep on growing at its two 
extremities, because it can't grow wider at all. The 
lakes shut it in on both sides. And as it grows east- 
ward and westward these tAvo ends will spread out 
wider and wider like two great fans. Tlie lake shore 
will be more and more built up; the city extending 
northeast toward Lakew^ood and Maple Bluff; on the 
east around the end of Lake Monona; on the south- 
west toward Turville's point and Esther Beach. On 
the west the extensive grounds of the University will 
keep several miles of the lake shore open to the pub- 
lic ; but in the region of Black Hawk's Cave and be- 



MADISON OUR HOME 



149 



3^ond the time is coming when houses will line all the 
shore to Mendota Beach. 




Town c f'TCHBufo 

EXTENSION OF THE CITY IN NEXT HALP-CENTURY 

Here is a map of Madison showing its present 
limits. The dark line indicates the general direction 
of its gTowth. You will note that the line extends 
from Mendota Beach in a town of Middleton, swing- 
ing around and including all of Lake Wingra and all 
the land around Lake Monona to the State Hospital 
grounds in the town of Westport. The logical growth 
of our city will take place within the curved line and 
there is no good reason to suppose this growth will 
be much more rapid in one direction tlian in another ; 
but will be a proportionate and balanced increase. 
All of the territory as indicated by the dark line will 
be platted and more or less built up when our popu- 



150 MADISON OUR HOME 

lace reaches one hundred thousand. This is likely U^ 
be at the end of fifty years — the year 1965 ; one hun- 
dred years after the death of Abraham Lincoln and 
the end of the Civil War. 

What can we say of that greater city? There wiH 
certainly be great changes. Will everything be 
changed or will some things remain about as they 
are now? The Capitol: will that be changed? The 
Post Office: is it likely to remain in the same place? 
The Capitol Square: will it continue to be the heart 
of the city — where the crowds will gather, and where 
the largest banks, hotels, and business houses will be 
found? 

Every city has certain fundamental needs. In the 
city of the future will they be the same as noAV? 
Such necessary things as street cars, water, electricity, 
sewerage and garbage disposal, telephones — will the 
future city require all these or will it have outgrown 
them? What is your view of this? We can imagine 
great improvements in all these services, but we can 
hardly imagine that the services themselves will be no 
longer necessar3\ 

It is said that a man once lived on the land Avhich 
noAv is covered by the city of Boston, Mass., and that 
the principal streets of the city follow the paths made 
by the cows of that first settler. We have perhaps 
visited some small city or town that has grown up in 
such a haphazard way. The streets might have been 
laid out by a blind man; the post office and library 
are not at the center where they belong but away off 
at opposite ends of the place and the city park is a 



MADISON OUR HOME 151 

mile or two aAvay. The trouble in such cases is that 
the people have no clear idea of what their toAvn ix 
to be ; they lack an intelligent plan. 

A CITY PLAN. 

Now Madison must not grow in any such slip-shod 
and haphazard way. This ought to be one of the clear 
purposes of the community mind. We need a city 
plan to provide in the best way for the expansion of 
the city and to meet the needs of the future. 

Let us think of a man who buys a small farm 
somewhere near Madison. On this farm are house, 
barns, sheds, and a well of water. He doesn't intend 
to become a farmer; he has another purpose in view. 
He has a vision of the future for himself and his fam- 
ily. He means to make extensive improvements and 
additions to the place he has purchased. He cannot 
do this all at once but will do it a little at a time as 
his means permit. But he puts his whole idea down 
on paper. He gets the help of architects and land- 
scape gardeners. The first year he will put some new 
floors in the house and pipe the water from the well 
into the kitchen; then he will remove his family from 
the city to live on the farm. The second year he will 
buy more live stock, cultivate more of the land and 
build a new barn. 

The third year he will enlarge the house, putting 
on new rooms, with modern plumbing. The fourth 
year he means to lay out the grounds around the home 
in an artistic way, with a broad drive, walks, flower 
beds and shrubbery. The fifth year he will plant 



152 MADISON OUR HOME 

many kinds of new trees and build a garage. So he 
will plan the various improvements to be made year 
by year for ten years. At the end of this time he will 
have a beautiful country estate. And he puts all 
these things or at least the more important ones down 
pn the original plan. 

We see how simple and sensible sucli a plan is. 
His plan covers a period of ten years but is not to be 
carried out all at once, only a part of it each year. 
It is just so with a city plan. It is a comprehensive 
yet reasonable scheme to foresee and provide for the 
city's future. 

Who shall make this plan? Obviously it should 
be done by the most competent people to be found 
in the city. In Chicago and many other cities a city 
planning board is appointed; and this is fjrobably 
the Avisest method to be followed here. W^e should 
have a small board of about five persons, one of whom 
is the Commissioner of Buildings and one a woman. 

General Idea of the City Planuing Board. Relations 
of the Board to the Cotnnion Council. 

The Board will work in harmony with the city 
Council; for the Council creates it and any power it 
may have will be delegated by the Council. The deci- 
sions of the Planning Board Avould not be carried out 
until ratified by the Council. (It may be worth not- 
ing here that the Police Commission of Madison is not 
created by the Council, but by an act of the State 
Legislature. ) 



MADISON OUR HOME 153 

Scope of Work of Planning Board. 

There are two things for such a board to consider 
and provide for. First, the growth within the present 
city limits; especially the increase of buildings in the 
tract lying between the lakes. Here there is already 
much congestion; business buildings are increasing 
and encroaching upon the residential streets; single 
houses are giving place to apartments; land is in- 
creasing in value and lots are being subdivided so 
that there are two buildings now on a lot, where but 
one Avould have been erected a few years ago; alleys 
are laid out through many blocks and built up witli 
houses; dwellings have been put up directly in the 
rear of others, cutting off the light and air spaces, 
and increasing the danger of disease. It will not be 
many years before all the land about the Capitol 
square and between the lakes will be solid blocks of 
buildings. 

SomeAvhere within the central portions of the city 
land ought to be secured for play space; and this 
should be undertaken at once as the rising values will 
make it more diflflcult and costly each year. In some 
residence blocks the rear ends of lots might be thrown 
together, forming an open court or lawn behind the 
houses. 

In 1916 the Common Council passed an ordinance 
relating to construction within the fire limits. It 
requires "new buildings to have the walls and roofs 
covered with non-inflammable material ; that all plans 
for new structures must be approved by the CommiKS- 
sioner of Buildings; additions to old buildings shall 



154 MADISON OUR HOME 

not extend nearer than six feet from any lot line, and 
the total cost of such addition shall not exceed five 
hundred dollars; when old roofs are to be recovered, 
shingles of wood must be replaced with fire-proof ma- 
terial; buildings which have been damaged or have 
deteriorated to the extent of one-half of their original 
value, may not be repaired but must be demolished on 
the order of the Commissioner of Buildings; no frame, 
veneered, or metal covered building shall be moved 
on to any lot within the fire limits; all chimneys here- 
after erected shall have flue lining or other construc- 
tion approved by the Commissioner." 

The rate of Madison's growth Avill necessitate fur- 
ther regulations ; such as limiting the height of build- 
ings and the division of the city into ''building dis- 
tricts." The idea of such districts is this; in a section 
now mainly or entirely occupied by residences, busi- 
ness houses and factories would not be alloAved ; in a 
section where there are both dwellings and business 
buildings these are to be regulated in such a way as 
to discourage the erection of houses near to factories 
or stores, or the placing of these latter among the res- 
idences; in a section where factories, stores, ware- 
houses and the like are now established the erection 
of residences will be discouraged or prohibited. 

This plan would divide the city into three kinds 
of districts, for building purposes : 

1. Residential. 

2. Mixed. 

3. Business. 

To keep pace with the growth provision would 
have to be made by the Planning Board for the in- 



MADISON OUR HOME 155 

creased use of present public utilities in the city, such 
as: more street cars and shorter running time; in- 
creased use of gas and electricity^, telephones, water, 
sewerage, and garbage collection; greater use of 
means of recreation — lake shores, parks, boating, and 
bathing and the like. 

These are some of the problems relative to the 
central sections of the city which a Planning Board 
would try to solve. 

Second, such a Board Avould also provide for the 
future extensions of the city. New plats and addi- 
tions would be subject to their approval; and they 
could require that land should be set aside within 
these for small parks and play spaces; and the loca- 
tion of school houses, library, public garages would 
be chosen with reference to tlie best interest of all. 
New streets would be laid out to tlie best advantage 
for traffic by connecting with older streets; and the 
most suitable places for pipes and wires of the vari- 
ous public utilities like water and gas, Avould be deter- 
mined. In these new additions man^- things might be 
done which are now impossible or very difficult to do 
in the older parts of the city. Thus streets may be 
laid out in graceful curves instead of the common 
straight lines, giving a pleasing variety ; at the ends 
of streets small oval spaces can be left for flowers, 
a fountain, and statuary ; in the center of wide streets 
space for boulevards Avith shrubbery, trees, and flow- 
ers. In some of these coming suburban sections the 
Board may specify the style of buildings to be erected, 
so that the whole streets and sections would have 
harmonious architectural eifects. In these and other 



156 MADISON OUR HOME 

ways a city Planning Board could produce results 
which have never been accomplished here. Many of 
us do not realize yet how ugly and unattractive the 
city is in many ways, such as the '^shanty towm" effect 
of the unpainted boat houses sprawling along the 
lake shore; the crowding together of all sorts of build- 
ings in a single block, without a thought of the gen- 
eral impression of haphazard raggedness; the great 
number of houses lacking grace or distinction and 
too frequently wearing a neglected and slovenly air; 
the failure, except in a very few locations, to combine 
tlie land and the buildings in one harmonious archi- 
tectural plan. Many cities in Europe and in America 
have surpassed Madison in this respect. In the west- 
ern parts the newer edifices shoAv something of the 
effects Avhich might be produced; but even there we 
see no general and co-ordinated plan for a whole dis- 
trict. 

GENEKAL FEATURES OF A CITY PLAN. 

1. Division of present city into building districts. 

2. General improvements to be made in the city 
as it is now\ 

3. Public utilities to be strengthened and en- 
larged to provide for future needs. 

4. Sketch of the new growth of the city provid- 
ing for : — 

Extension of streets, circles, and squares. 
Street cars and other necessities, such as 
Avater, sewerage and electricity. 
Schools, garages, and community halls. 



MADISON OUR HOME 157 

Play grounds, parks, and fountains. 
Lake shores made available. 

All these results would then be brought together 
in one general plan to cover the groAvth of Madison 
for half a centur}^ 

Such a plan would be made known to all people in 
the city. It would be printed in the newspapers and 
in pamphlets for general distribution. It Avould be 
explained at meetings, held in schools and churches. 
So it would become the property of all the people 
and everybody would understand it. 

BENEFITS OF FOLLOWING A CITY PLAN. 

1. Gives us an idea of the city of the future as a 
whole, with all its parts organically organized and 
built up : a bigger, better, and more beautiful city. 

2. Prevents haphazard growth — overcrowding — 
spoiling of residence districts — erecting of unsafe, un- 
sanitary and ugl}' structures. 

3. Shows how the needs of the future can be met 
as they arise. 

4. Does not require to be carried out now but 
shows how improvements may best be made progress- 
ively for fifty years to come. 

A COMMISSION FORM OF CITY GOVERNMENT 
FOR MADISON. 
A new plan for the government of cities has been 
adopted b}^ some two hundred municipalities in the 
United States, among them being Des Moines, loAva; 
Galveston, Texas ; Haverhill, Mass. ; and Superior, 
Wis. Thirteen Wisconsin cities are now trying out 
this plan. 



158 MADISON OUR HOME 

What Commission Government Would 2Iean 
Foi^ Madison. 

Tlie present city government is described on page 
55. The new plan would mean the doing away with 
the tAventy aldermen, two from each ward ; their place 
would be taken by a commission of three or possibly 
five men, elected by the people from the city at large. 
One of these would act as the head of the Commission 
and be called the mayor. All city business would be 
organized into as many departments as there were 
members of the commission, each commissioner to be 
placed at the head of a department and made respon- 
sible for its successful management. 

Those who believe in this plan claim that by it 
the affairs of a city can be more efficiently and eco- 
nomically conducted. Members of the commission 
would devote all their time to the city's affairs and be 
paid an adequate salary. They would be on duty 
and accessible to the people every day. 

In city government by a Board of Aldermen, the 
members must give most of their time to their own 
work and can devote only a small part of it to city 
business. It is also claimed that under the present 
government, it is often very hard and even impossible 
to fix the responsibility — to say who is to blame for 
poor streets, defective sidewalks, and unsanitary 
buildings; or for failure to carry out the new meas- 
ures voted by the city council; but that it Avould not 
be so with commission government. Regarding this 
subject it is the part of wisdom to ^'make haste slow- 
l}^-' Too much may be claimed for the new plan. It 
certainly would not do all that its advocates promise; 



MADISON OUR HOME 159 

and in some cities which have tried it the people have 
voted to go back to the old plan. Also we are all 
too ready to criticize the present city organization 
and to blame the men who carry on the municipal 
affairs. 

It would be a good thing for the teachers of civics 
to take their groups of pupils upon visits of inspec- 
tion to the various city departments, learn something 
of their work and come in personal contact with the 
men. No one will deny that most of our city officials 
are poorly paid for the Avork they do; they do give 
us much good and faithful service. They frame our 
ordinances, build, repair and clean our streets, guard 
our health, protect us from criminals and from fire, 
manage the public schools, water works, sewerage, 
and garbage disposal, and in many other ways are 
constantly and successfully administering our public 
affairs. And there is no good reason for saying that 
they do this alone for the salary they receive. We 
believe that these public officers regard themselves 
as the people's servants; that they are sincerely try- 
ing to serve the city's interests because it is their 
home and they have a true love for it. It has become 
all too prevalent a practice in American cities to criti- 
cize, abuse and defame public officials. No sooner 
is a man elected to a responsible city position than he 
is thought to be transformed into a semi-criminal. 
In private life he might be known, respected and 
trusted as a man of good intentions and character; 
in public office he is treated like a conspirator and 
traitor who needs to be Avatched. 

It is not only a very difficult task for an Alder- 



IGO MADISON OUR HOME 

man or Mayor or Superintendent of a city department 
to satisfy all citizens; it is an absolutely impossible 
one. The greatest and wisest and most unselfish men 
in our country have failed in this. Even Washington 
and Lincoln were unmercifully abused in their life- 
time and charged witli things which sound very 
strange to our ears. And there is no reason whatever 
for believing that a smaller number of men chosen to 
make up a city commission would be one particle less 
free from abuse and blame than has been the case 
under the old plan and the proof is found in every city 
which has made the change. The real strength we 
think of the argument for a commission form of gov- 
ernment for our cit}^ is that a feAV men chosen at large, 
well paid and devoting their whole time to the work, 
would or should do that work somewhat more expedi- 
tiously^ and better and at a saving of money to the 
taxpayers. That they would be any more devoted or 
patriotic cannot be honestly claimed. 

The Youth of Madison To Determine Its Future. 
If the Madison of the future is to be such a city 
as Ave have described, it will be so because its children 
and young people have a vision of the city beautiful 
and resolve to fulfill it. We have all read the propliet's 
words : 

''Your young men shall see visions 

And your old men shall dream dreams.'^ 

It is natural for older folks to look backAvard and 

dream of by-gone days and times. They knoAV that 

the future belongs to the young people. So it does; 

and young people naturally see visions of tlie coming 



MADISON OUR HOME 161 

days. It is as natural for the boy to let his mind 
dwell on the work he means to do and the kind of a 
man he means to become as it is for him to breathe. 
Boys are interestetd in Madison's past, but more 
keenly interested in its future, for it is in the city 
of tomorrow that they are to live and make a career 
for themselves. The young people now in school will 
very largely determine Madison's future; they will 
have to vote upon the plans for its enlargement and 
betterment; they will approve or disapprove of the 
taxes and bond issues needed to make these improve- 
ments. They will decide whether or not there shall j 
be overcroAvded and dark districts or whether all dis- ] 
tricts shall have space and air and light; whether ] 
there shall be slum sections with dirty houses and fil- \ 
thy yards breeding disease or whether every street | 
shall be beautiful and every yard and every house ; 
attractive and sanitary. 



1G2 MADISON OUE HOME 



What the City Does for its 
Children and Youth 

The juvenile element — the children of a city, are 
the most valuable thing in it. In tlie schools of today 
are the citizens, the men and women of tomorrow. 
Madison, like every other city, has made great efforts 
and spent large sums to safeguard its young life; to 
educate and to train its boys and girls so that they 
shall grow up, into useful, noble, and beautiful man- 
hood and Avomanhood. 

A child belongs, primarily to its parents; but not 
entirely. If parents fail to take iiroper care of their 
children or to send them to school the law steps in. 
What's the reason of this? Why should anyone come 
between the parents and the child? 

The first need of a child is a good home. Who pro- 
vides this? Suppose some one complains that a cer- 
tain home is not a good one and not a proper place 
for children to live, to whom would the complaint 
be made? Who would decide the question? By what 
authority? 

Ways in Which the City Safeguards Children 
in the Home. 

It requires that homes shall be: 

1. Sanitary. 

2. Properly warmed. 

3. Providing sufficient food and clothing. 

4. Morally safe. 



MADISON OUR HOME 163 

5. It protects the home; others shall not inter- 
fere, so long as parents provide and do their duty. 
No one shall injure the home, break windows or set 
fii'e. 

G. The city i^unishes anyone who wilfully injures 
a child in body or in mind, or who kidnaps a child. 

The city desires but does not oblige that homes 
shall be clean, orderly, attractive within and without, 
with flowers, shrubs, and vines ; exposed surfaces kept 
painted, and lawn cut so that the i3lace shall be a 
pleasure to the eye. 

WJiat the City Offers in a ^Yay of Education 
and Training. 

We may bring together in this place the many 
and various forms of education to be found here. We 
shall thus gain a better idea of the comprehensive- 
ness of these forms and have a greater appreciation of 
what it means to be born and to grow^ up in such a 
city as Madison. 

At the age of four years a boy or girl may enter 
the public kindergarten and pursue courses of study 
and instruction through the eight grades, the High 
School and the University until they attain the age 
of twenty-four years. Thus twenty years of life may 
be employed in a progressive series of studies in the 
public educational institutions of Madison. Besides 
the fundamental things such as reading, writing, 
spelling, geography, literature, mathematics and his- 
tory our children and young people may learn chem- 
istry, physics, physiology, botany and zoology, foreign 
languages, music, art, bookkeeping and business 



164 MADISON OUR HOME 

forms, shorthand and typewriting, civics, work in 
Avood and iron, dress making and domestic science. 

At the University training is offered in astronomy, 
advanced science, history, language, music and liter- 
ature; in sociology and political economy, journalism, 
laAV, education, manual arts, medicine, pharmacology, 
philosophy, physical education, in chemical, electri- 
cal, hydraulic, railway, structural, and typographic 
engineering; in mining and machine designing; in 
agriculture, dairying, agronomy, animal and poultry 
liusbandry, horticulture, soils and veterinary science; 
and in home economics, and landscape gardening. 

No Madison boy needs to leave his own city to 
learn any of the modern trades such as that of car- 
penter, mason, bricklayer, tinsmith, blacksmith, i^a- 
per lianger, painter, plumber, steam fitter, cigar 
maker, railway trainman, locomotive fireman, locomo- 
tive engineer, motor truck driver, chauffeur, street 
car conductor or motor man, electrical worker, team- 
ster, typesetter, barber. 

Madison business and professional men are always 
looking for the right sort of young people — those who 
are steady and reliable. Hundreds of boys and girls 
each year are taken into stores, factories, and offices 
where they receive valuable information and a form of 
discipline which will help them to promotions and 
furnish the ground work for their future success in 
business. If architecture interests you there are the 
Capitol, the Historical Library building, Latlirop 
Hall, the Forest Products Laboratory, St. Paul's 
Chapel, Unitarian church, the Chicago and North- 
western Railroad Depot, Randall School, tlie Keeley 



MADISON OUR HOME 



165 




166 MADISON OUR HOME 

& Neckerman store, the T. S. Morris Co. warehouse 
and other public edifices besides a large number of 
private houses, which present many forms of archi- 
tecture, color schemes and ornamentation. The art 
of landscape gardening has now been developed 
largely, and in the treatment of Capitol park, Tenney, 
Brittingham and Vilas Parks, portions of the Univer- 
sity Campus, as well as private lawns and estates we 
see how the skill of man may work upon nature to 
produce new and beautiful combinations. And all 
these may be studied and enjoyed by our young folks. 

Painting, portraiture and sculpture are repre- 
sented her by many valuable pieces, (See page 106) 
some of them by artists of national and international 
reputation. The Madison Art Association provides 
several exhibitions yearly. These are explained by 
experts, and open to young as well as old. 

Of books it may be truthfully said that our young 
people may have the use of books upon any subject 
whatever in which they may be interested. Madison 
is a city of libraries. ( See page 105. ) 

You may learn how to raise vegetables and flow- 
ers by joining the city Garden Association. If you 
wish to skate, to swim, handle a canoe, row boat, sail 
or motor boat, you could not find better opportuni- 
ties elsewhere in the world. Every form of music is 
taught from the simplest elements up to composition, 
symphonies, and orchestration. Artists of high merit 
are located here, and the most famous of musicians 
are heard here yearly. 

The drama, vaudeville and moving pictures are 



MADISON OUR HOME 167 

abundantly represented, and we have so many con- 
certs, lectures and entertainments that we could not 
take advantage of them all even if the week had ten 
evenings instead of seven. 

Recreation. (This is is described on page 109.) 
Will the children please tell wiiat are the means of 
recreation to be found in the city? Can you think 
how recreation in Madison might be improved? Do 
we need more play space? Have the boys a chance 
to play baseball and football? Where? Do you think 
that you are fairly treated when the city obliges you 
to slide only on certain streets? Would you enjoy 
swimming as much in winter as in the summer time? 
Are there any places in Madison for indoor swim- 
ming? Have you ever had a swim there? Would it 
be a good thing if we had some public swimming pool 
where all could go who wish during the winter? A 
public gym? A golf course? 

Charitable Services. See page 124. ) 

If a boy has appendicitis an operation is necessary 
at once; the boy's father is dead and the mother can- 
not pay for this service. What shall be done? Is 
there any way by which this boy may receive the ser- 
vice needed to save his life? When a family has had 
illness or lost their means and needs fuel, clothes, 
food, medicine, to whom may they go in Madison to 
receive these things? How many institutions do we 
have for giving such help? A man is out of work; 
is there any society or institution in our city that will 
help him to find a job? 



168 MADISON OUR HOME 

Chances to Buy Things. 

One cannot buy a locomotive or an elephant in 
Madison. Can you name other things not on sale 
here? The thousand things which we need day by 
day may all be found in Madison stores. Let the chil- 
dren name 25 of these. What are some of the things 
manufactured in Madison and on sale here? 

What are called utilities may be purchased here 
in many forms. Such tilings as rides on street cars, 
trips on lakes, the services of physicians, dentists, 
oculists, laA\yers, barbers. In these instances we do 
not purchase things but pay for services performed. 
Let the children name others of the same kind. 

.Institutions in Madison not found elsewhere in 
Dane County. What are these? (See page 73.) 

Institutions in Madison not found elsewhere in 
the State of Wisconsin. (For answer see page 67.) 

Institutions in Madison not found elsewhere in 
the United States. Are there any such? (For an- 
swer see page 66.) 

Distincju ish ed Citizens. 

In the earlier pages Ave have given a brief account 
of our city's past. Whatever has been accomplished 
is never wholly lost; it is still a real part of the pres- 
ent, and this is particularly true of outstanding per- 
sonages. Though ''now we see them no more" they 
abide with us as spiritual influences. 

The foUoAving names of former Madisonians are 
deserving of mention : 

David A. Atwood liA^^ed in this city from 1847 to 
his death in 1889. In 1852 he founded the Wisconsin 



MADISON OUR HOME 1G9 

State Journal. As an editor, politician, mayor of the 
city, member of the state legislature and of congress 
he exerted a wide influence. The Republican party 
was first organized in Wisconsin at a public meeting 
held on the east steps of the first capitol, July 14, 
1854. General Atwood w^as one of the committee to 
draft and present the party platform in that historic 
day. 

General Lucius A. Fairchild was for many years 
a resident of Madison. He was a ^'forty niner" mak- 
ing the journey overland to California with ox teams; 
a soldier in nine great battles of the civil war, losing 
an arm at Gettysburg; three times elected Governor 
of Wisconsin ; United States consul at Liverpool, Eng- 
land, and Paris, France; United States minister to 
Spain ; Commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the 
Republic; he rounded out his brilliant career in the 
quiet, unselfish service of a private citizen. He died 
in 1896. 

Senator Wililam F. Vilas was one of the state's 
ablest and most distinguished lawyers. He went to 
the front in the Civil War and was prominent at the 
capture of Vicksburg. President Grover Cleveland 
took him into his cabinet where he held the position 
of Secretary of the Interior and later that of Post- 
master-General. His prominence as a democrat led 
to his election to the LTnited States Senate. He served 
several years as Regent of the L^niversity and at the 
time of his deatli, in 1906, was chairman of the build- 
ing commission for the new Capitol. By his will his 
large property will go to the state university. Henry 
Vilas park is named after Senator Vilas' only son; a 



170 MADISON OUR HOME 

generous gift of money from Senator and Mrs. Vilas 
making possible the erection of this park. 

David A. Wright came to Madison in 1844 and 
taught school in the first public school house erected 
here. He took up the trade of carpenter and helped 
to build many of the older structures still left in the 
city. He attained prominence throughout the state 
as a devoted and influential member of the Masonic 
order. When more than ninety years of age Uncle 
David, as everybody called him, often conducted the 
public Masonic burial service; his venerable aspect, 
tall figure and remarkable memory creating a deep 
impression upon all who heard him. Ninety-six years 
old at his death in 1916, Mr. Wright had seen Madi- 
son grow from a tiny village to its present size. 

We can only mention the name of Professor Wil- 
liam F. Allen who is to be rememberd alike as scholar, 
teacher and citizen; of Henry M. Lewis, Avell known 
member of the bar, who gave himself most generously 
to the service of the city, in the council. Boards of 
Education, of the Hospital and the Free Library; 
Keferee in Bankruptcy for the Federal Court at his 
death in 1915; of Judge Anthony Donovan of the 
Municipal Court who while earning his living as a 
blacksmith resolved to study for the bar, and in due 
time exchanged his leathern apron for a lawyer's 
license ; of James R. Stnart, portrait painter ; and of 
Reuben Gold Thwaites, author, and Secretary of the 
State Historical Society over a quarter of a century. 

Did not lack of space forbid, this list could be 
made much longer. 



MADISON OUR HOME 171 

Distinguished Living Citizens. 

The well-knoAvn work of reference ^'Who's Who 
in America," published in Chicago, prints in the edi- 
tion for 1916 the names of one hundred and forty-two 
men and women, all residents of Madison. These 
have won a national, and some an international repu- 
tation in science, journalism, law, medicine, author- 
ship, music, politics, education and other fields. 

These advantages are further increased by the 
numerous opportunities of seeing and hearing famous 
people who come to Madison. Men and women from 
all portions of the United States and from almost 
every county on earth. Well known people with es- 
tablished reputations give addresses, lectures, con- 
certs or recitals here each year. And in addition to 
these we may name the many large conventions of 
bankers, dairymen, sheep raisers, real estate men, in- 
surance agents, automobile dealers, teachers, librari- 
ans and others. Tavo thousand students at the Uni- 
versity come from outside the state; many from for- 
eign lands. The result of all this influx of people is to 
enrich the life of our city, imparting an atmosphere 
of stimulation and novelty, and adding much of edu- 
cational value for the young folks who live here. It 
gives them the benefits of travel without the expense 
and trouble of going away from home. Shakespeare 
said that ^4iome keeping youths have ever homely 
wits." But ^^lome keeping youths" in our good city 
have no excuse for having ^^lomely wits" if they are 
at all observant, ambitious, and eager to learn. 

People who live in Wisconsin are interested in 



172 MADISON OUR HOME 

the state government and the numerous state insti- 
tutions. There are many reasons why people need 
exact information about these, since their business 
depends upon and is guided by such information. 
Thousands of men and women leave their homes and 
come here to confer with the Governor or with some of 
the state boards and commissions ; or to transact bus- 
iness with the county officials; or secure information 
at the University. Hundreds of thousands of letters 
come to Madison from every city and village and town- 
ship in Wisconsin. They are written by people who 
want information which can only be gained liere, or 
who have business to transact with the institutions 
located in the Capital City. 

But for us fortunate ones who dwell Avhere the 
figure of Forward greets, from her lofty pedestal, 
the rising sun, there is no need for letters or journeys, 
of trouble, expense or delay. The capital city is the 
heart of the state. Whoever in Madison desires any- 
thing in the Avay of information or help from the Uni- 
versity may have it in a quater of an hour. Whoever 
has dealings with Dane county may enter the court 
house any day. Wlioever has need of the Industrial 
Commission, the Utilities Commission, the state Refer- 
ence Library, or of any department or official has only 
to walk to the Capitol. The special state license for 
hunting, fishing and for automobiles are all issued 
here from the office of the Secretarv of State. 



MADISON OUR HOME 173 

The City's Claim Upon The 

Love and Loyalty of its 

Young People 

We have seen how much is done by the city for its 
juvenile life, as their fostering mother. May she not 
expect them to repay her in devoted and loyal ser- 
vice? Just as a right minded boy means to repay his 
mother for all she has done for him so he will mean 
to repay the city by becoming a strong, reliable, self- 
supporting man and useful citizen. 

A boy's love for his mother gTOAvs as he gets older. 
Every year he becomes a little more thoughtful, ma- 
ture, and appreciative. Each year he understands a 
little better what his mother is doing for him. This 
little book is prepared to aid the young people of Mad- 
ison in understanding their city; what great hopes 
and expectations she has of them ; and to thus to call 
out their loyalty to her. 

Not once but many times have Madison boys gone 
away to seek their fortunes elseAvhere and to see some- 
thing of the great Avorld. But they have come back 
again; the cords which attach them to Madison are 
very strong and draw them back to the city of tlieir 
birth. For them no other sky is quite so fair, no other 
water so beautiful, no hills so gTeen, or meadows so 
vocal as those of Taychopera. They have seen much 
of cities, of business, of human life— but this goodly 
city where they first saw the light has the oreatest 



174 MADISON OUR HOME 

attraction for them, the most poAverful grip upon 
their hearts; and so they have returned to live out 
their days and to be buried here. 

How much Madison means to some of her citizens 
is shown by their gifts — sometimes made while they 
are yet living, sometimes in the form of bequests 
available after the death of the giver. Worthy of 
mention and of remembrance is the Steensland bridge, 
given by the late Halle Steensland; Tenney Park, for 
which the late Daniel K. Tenney gave generously; 
Brittingham Park, named for Mr. Thomas Britting- 
ham in recognition of his generosity toward the park 
work; and the statue of Abraham Lincoln on the 
Upper Campus, presented to the University by Mr. 
Brittingham. Mr. and Mrs. William F. Vilas have 
given the greater part of the money for the creation 
and improvement of Vilas Park. Professor Edward 
T. Owen has given land to the Park Association. The 
late George W. Burrows and the late W. W. Warner 
each left provision by will for the enlargement of the 
city's parks. Dr. Charles H. Vilas has built a Parish 
House and parsonage for the First Unitarian Society. 
Bequests to the Madison General Hospital have been 
made by the late Halle Steensland and the late W. W. 
Warner; and by the Trustees of the old Synagogue. 
Among those Avho have left gifts for the churches 
and charitable institutions are the late Sarah Rieb- 
sam and the late Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Hollister, and 
there are other names which migiit be mentioned 
of those who have given substantial amounts to the 
churches, hospitals, and other institutions. 

These gifts shoAV how some of the grown-up people 



MADISON OUR HOME 175 

care for the city. In this way they will be able to 
benefit Madison long after they are gone. But love 
and loyalty may be shown in many other ways, and 
when a man cleans up his own door yard and puts 
boxes of flowers on his porch he is showing the same 
sentiment. Very common things, ordinary, little 
things, may show civic loyalty and be of real help 
to the community. A boy discovers a hole in the road 
leading past his house. To whom should he give in- 
formation? What migiit happen if the hole were 
left open, especially during the night? 



176 MADISON OUR HOME 



What We can do for Our City 

1. Madison asks her young people to be alAvays 
presentable in person, with clean hands, clean nails 
and ears; with clothes and shoes Avell brushed and 
free from dirt stains. 

2. She wants them to be healthy and strong. By 
an intelligent care of the body, the instrument with 
which the work of life must be done. If the teeth 
decay, go to the dentist ; if the eyes give trouble, con- 
sut an oculist; if there are pains and other symp- 
toms of disease, consult the family doctor ; avoid eat- 
ing too much candy and pickles; do not smoke cigar- 
ettes — the effect of smoking upon the undeveloped 
nervous system of a boy is bad ; it makes him dull and 
stupid; he cannot get his lessons and falls behind 
the others in his class. It is no good excuse for a boy 
to say that his father smokes — for his is the nervous 
system and constitution of a mature man. It is not 
riglit for boys to do some things which groAvn men do. 
A grown man may haA^e a family ; a boA^ may not. He 
must wait until he is a man and can fill a man's place 
and do a man's Avork. 

Therefore the loyal boy Avill not be seen sneaking 
back of the school to smoke. If he means to smoke 
as his father does he will wait until he is a man. Then 
if he controls himself and AAaits he may ncA^r form 
the habit at all. ]\[ore important than the use of 
tobacco is the use of alcoliolic liquor. The after ef- 
fects and final results of alcohol upon the cells of the 



MADISON OUR HOME 177 

brain and tissues of the body are disastrous. Alcohol 
is a poison and wrecks its thousands who are not 
strong enough to let it alone. 

The victims of alcohol become weak, diseased, and 
broken men and women. Many of them are today in 
the county jail at Madison, in the County Farm at 
Verona and in the Hospital for Insane at Mendota. 
Alcoholic liquors weaken the system and lessen its 
power to resist disease. All physicians agree to this, 
and all saj that the chance for a man who does not 
use liquors is vastly better than for a man wiio does. 

Like the use of tobacco, drinking becomes a fixed 
habit. The drinker says he must have his stimulant. 
This is alwa3^s the effect of alcoholic poison upon the 
tissues of the body. It creates an artificial thirst, 
and such an artificial thirst is not quenched by any 
natural beverages, nor by any that do not contain 
alcohol. What a pity, oh what a pity to see a young 
man who has enjoyed all the blessong of a good home 
and the instruction of the church ; who has graduated 
from the schools and made perhaps a brilliant record 
as a student, whose life opens auspiciously and hap- 
pily with promise of a useful and honorable service 
— then to wreck everything because he cannot let 
liquor alone ! He loses his position because employers 
will not pay a man with befuddled brain and tremb- 
ling hands to do work which requires a steady hand 
and level head. His sweetheart breaks off the en- 
gagement because she is too wise to marry a man 
whose children may be weaklings and degenerates. 
His friends do all they can, but will not give or lend 
him money because they know too well that he will 



178 



MADISON OUR HOME 



spend it for drink. And tlie once clear eyed and 
promising boy of whom great things were expected, 
becomes a mere shadow of a man ; a human scrap and 
good for nothing. Of what nse is such a man to his 
city? He cannot be trusted; lie cannot liold an office; 
he cannot earn his OAvn living. Instead of paying 
back in some form of service for those benefits re- 
ceived from the city, lie is only adding to the city's 
burdens. Worse than that he is adding to her shame, 
her humiliation and defeat. Such is the love and 
loyalty to his city shown by the weak willed slave of 
drink ! 




STATUE OF LINCOLN BY ADOLPH WEINMANN 



MADISON OUR HOME ITU 

We hope that every boy and girl who may see tliis 
book will remember and resolve to follow the examph' 
of that great and noble American, Abraham Lincoln — 
his strong face looks down upon you from your school 
room wall — who signed the total abstinence pledge in 
his early life and kept that pledge to the end. 

3. She wants young people to be polite and cour- 
teous. Politeness, courtesy — this is a form of unself- 
ishness; it is the attitude we take tow^ard other peo- 
ple. Every one is glad to see a polite boy or girl ; and 
everyone is displeased when young people are ill- 
mannered, saucy and unobliging. Madison has thou- 
sands of visitors and strangers every year. Many of 
these inspect the schools and playgrounds, they meet 
the young folks at the theatres, in the stores, the 
streets and cars. The young people are by their be- 
havior advertising the city to these visitors. By their 
conversation and deportment strangers will form a 
judgment about the homes, schools and cliurches of 
^ladison. A favorable impression may cause them 
to select this city as their home. 

Politeness is shown in replying to people who ask 
us questions; or who w^ant to find some building or 
person in the city; in touching the cap or hat to la- 
dies; in rising to give our seat to a lady in the street 
car; in refraining from unkind comment and mean 
hints about one's companions and mates; in keeping 
one's appointments promptly, such as apopintments 
with the teacher, the dentist, the doctor. 

4. The city looks for a spirit of serviceableness — 
doing helpful and kind things. The teacher needs 
the help of one or several pupils in carrying mes- 



180 MADISON OUR HOME 

sages, i^iitting the room in order, or clearing up the 
desks. A sick neighbor wants a prescription filled 
at the drug store. Two old ladies living alone need 
to have the snow cleared from their walks. The cor- 
ner gTocery is looking for a boy to help deliver goods 
on Saturdays. A young mother wants a girl to care 
for her baby two hours every w^eek. A blind child 
would be very happy to have some one read to her. 
A deaf and dumb child needs some one to go with her 
to the school ; it is not safe for her to cross the streets 
alone. A stranger asks to be shoAvn the way to the 
Board of Commerce. An old man's hat is blown 
off and goes rolling down the street. A child carry- 
ing a bundle containing the meat for supper is crying 
for fear of a barking dog. Mother is out; how nice 
to find that the children have prepared supper I 
These are some of the things which may present 
opportunities for a kind hearted boy or girl. They 
will fulfill them gladly because they love to be of 
service to others. This adds to the general sum 
of the city's serviceableness — increases the general 
spirit of kindliness — one of the valuable assets of the 
city. 

5. Madison asks that your people have a care for 
the beautifying of the city — lessening its ugliness 
and adding to its attractiveness. When our friends 
or relations from out of town come to visit us we 
take pride in showing them all the interesting places. 
We take them to see the Capitol and the University, 
the parks and the lakes. We are very enthusiastic 
about these and tell our guests that they ought to 
live in Madison. But all the while we know that 



MADISON OUR HOME 181 

there are some things not so attractive — things of 
which we could not boast. Those ugly and squalid 
little buildings, some mere wooden shacks standing 
on the square — we did not feel like praising such a 
setting to our splendid Capitol. As we led the way to 
the parks we passed many unsightly house fronts 
and yards. Many houses, sheds, and fences were 
without paint, and there were no trees, grass or flow- 
ers. Like a scar on a human face such places disfig- 
ure our city and we can only feel shame when stran- 
gers see them. 

Civic Improvement Clubs. 
In the city schools the young folk can form them- 
selves into improvement clubs. All who live in a 
certain district or a certain block will constitute the 
membership of such a club. It will have as president 
some popular and energetic boy or girl, and three 
others as his helpers — the executive committee of the 
club. They will go over their district and see what 
its condition is. Then they will visit about the city 
to see how things look in the more attractive sections. 
They may enter the library and see the pictures of 
beautiful houses, lawns, yards and streets. At the 
next meeting of the club they will make their report 
and recommendations. Perhaps the first thing will 
be this: "Resolved, that each member of the club 
begin with his own home.'' At the following meeting- 
each tells what he has done. This is a highly interest- 
ing and exciting meeting. 

Jacob Doe is the first called on to report. "I took 
down a dead tree in our yard and cut it up to use in 



182 MADISON OUR HOME 

the fire place. Then I found about a cord of old 
rubbish in the corner of the yard; we had the habit 
of throwing things out there, old shoes, newspapers, 
tin cans, old iron. I cleaned these up and put them 
in barrels to be hauled away — the stuff filled three 
barrels." 

The meeting applauds the report and the President 
calls upon Mary Jones. "I got father to mend the 
front porch. It looked very badly but we were all so 
busy we didn't think much about it till our club 
was formed ; then I made up my mind to have it fixed. 
The porch rail posts had decayed and several had 
fallen out — it made me think of a person who has 
lost some of his front teeth. Father got some new 
posts and put them in place after supper and next 
Saturday he is going to paint the entire porch." 

And so the reports came one after another. One 
boy had taken his own money to buy a galvanized iron 
garbage can. Another had bought grass seed and 
sown it. Another had carried earth in a bucket from 
the back of the house to fill in the holes in the front. 
Another had seen the alderman from his ward and 
asked to have the trees in his block trimmed by the 
city trimmer. 

At is annual meeting the club held a supper in one 
of the churches ; the school principal, the minister and 
the aldermen of the ward were present. Some fine 
things had been done. The movement started by the 
club had stirred up the whole neighborhood. The 
mothers talked about it at their serving club and the 
fatliers when the}^ met made plans to help on the good 



MADISON OUR HOME 183 

cause. One man began by painting his porch ; others 
painted their fences, and a sort of paint fever broke 
out until there was not a single house or shed or fence 
left in the old ugly, bare condition. Every surface 
Avas bright and fresh and clean. At the neighborhood 
sewing club the mothers took up the matter of flow- 
ers, shrubs and vines and decided on a plan which 
showed their good sense and at the same time showed 
how they had caught the spirit of civic improvement 
from the young people. Instead of each woman plant- 
ing such things as she liked it was decided to plant 
Avith reference to the district as a whole. Each home 
was to have its own favorite flowers but each was also 
to specialize and to make a display of some one thing. 
The result was most surprising and successful. The 
rather monotonous and dull aspect of things was 
completely changed; the district was transformed, 
presenting a variety of effects most pleasing to look 
upon. One home had specialized in nasturtiums — 
another in climbing roses — another in honeysuckle. 
Then came geraniums, native wild flowers and ferns, 
holly hocks, etc. Here and there small evergreen 
trees had been set out under the older maples and 
elms. One yard had a rustic seat, another a ham- 
mock, another a grape arbor. One boy whose father 
was a mason contractor had built a large concrete 
basin in the yard, covered it with white enamel paint 
and laid an iron pipe to fill it with water. Here were 
rushes and pond lillies growing while among their 
stalks could be seen turtles and minnows which the 
lad had captured from the lake with a small net he 
had made for the purpose. The shining gold fish 



184 



MADISON OUR HOME 



he had bought at the store. This fine fish pond was 
the talk of the Avhole neighborhood. Every one came 
to see it and praised the boy's ingenuity and perse- 
verenee. Several members of the civic improvement 
club had learned how to make gardens; they had 
worked with the city Garden Association. So they 
spaded up the soil and made some excellent gardens 
where they could pick radishes, tomatoes, lettuce 
and cucumbers at their own doors. One boy sold 
enough from his garden to buy a second hand bicycle, 
and a girl whose flower bed bore splendid asters sold 
enough to buy her baby sister a fine doll. The great- 
est change of all was made when the back fences were 
all moved in twenty feet near the houses. The lots 
were deep and this left plenty of room for gardens?. 
This gave a space forty feet wide and nearly one block 
long where the babies and smaller children could play 



-■■TTI 




NEGLECTED BACK-YARDS 



MADISON OUR HOME 185 

to their hearts' content. There had been one or two 
accidents because the children played in the streets, 
and this new little play ground was greatly appre- 
ciated by all. 

After this transformation had taken place in the 
district one of the houses was sold and a new family 
moved in. These people must have come from some 
place where very poor ideas of civic cleanliness and 
beauty prevailed, for they let the grass go uncut, the 
children tore down the vines and cut the trees with 
knives and hatchets; papers and w^aste were thrown 
into the street or left blowing about the lawn. This 
troubled the neighbors and hurt their pride. One 
early morning a paj)er bag full of garbage Avas found 
in the gutter in front of one of the best houses in 
the street. The man who found it knew^ it could not 
have come from that house and carried it away to 
put into his own family garbage pail. Not long after 
a second bag of garbage Avas found in front of another 
house, and later a third in still another part of the 
street. One of the older boys, a member of the im- 
provement club, became suspicious. He rose next 
morning very early to watch the house where the 
new people had moved in. He was rcAvarded for his 
vigilance b}^ seeing the man carry a bag filled with 
garbage up the street and fling it down into the gut- 
ter. This explained the mystery. That evening three 
men called on the family and had a talk with the head 
of the house. It must have been an instructive and 
convincing interview, for the next day the hardware 
delivery brought a new galvanized iron garbage pail 
to that house. Furthermore, evidence was shown that 



186 



MADISON OUR HOME 




MADISON OUR HOME 187 

the new family was responding to the neighborhood 
spirit. 

6. Madison asks her young people to practice 
thrift. Every boy and girl has some money to spend ; 
it may be an allowance given by their parents, or it 
may be their own earnings. It is so easy to spend 
money nowadays, and so hard to keep any ! There are 
so many things to buy, so many shows to attend, so 
many costly parties and banquets to which we are 
invited, and they all take money. Older people feel 
this even more keenly than the young, and have the 
same trouble to live within their incomes. But for 
any one to spend all his money as fast as he gets it 
is evidence of weakness; he lacks decision and good 
judgment. The time comes when he will be greatly 
in need of some money; it may be to pay the doctor, 
to go on a journey, or to get a start in business. The 
thrifty man lives within his incomes; he does not 
spend all he earns but lays by some part of it. This 
habit of saving something — no matter how small the 
sum — ought to be formed in early life. Let the chil- 
dren start an account in the savings bank — school 
savings club — let them deny themselves some of the 
tempting things they would like to do or have and 
add this money to their account. In a short time 
there will be a substantial amount in the bank. With 
this a boy can buy a suit of clothes at the opening 
of school, when his father has been ill or out of work 
all summer. A girl's savings may enable her to take 
music lessons or buy good books for her library. When 
one has something saved up it gives a sense of 



188 MADISON OUR HOME 

strength; ''lie stands higher in his boots''; it is one 
element in character and good citizenship. 

7. Madison asks her children to be honest. Speak 
and act the truth. Be reliable ; let people know that 
your word is good, your promise is sacred and will be 
kept. Pay your bills. If a store keeper is good enough 
to trust you for something you want, pay him at the 
time agreed upon. If a playmate sells you a knife or 
a bicycle on trust — ''do unto him as you would that 
he should do unto you.'' Kever have candy or ice cream 
charged to your father or mother at the stores 
without first obtaining their full consent. You know 
the proverb, ''The boy is father to the man.'' What 
does it mean? A dishonest boy — tricky and unreli- 
able, Avhat kind of a man Avill he be? Will he be serv- 
ing the city in the right way? 

8. Madison wants her children to be pure and 
clean, in mind and body. In all their relations with 
one another boj'S and girls are to be as little gentle- 
men and little ladies. Just as they treat their own 
mothers and sisters, in the same way boys are to treat 
all girls and women. Eules of conduct at school, 
on the street and in all other places are really not 
needed. For every child knows by instinct what is 
required of him, and this natural goodness and sense 
of right is re-inforced by his mother, by his teacher, 
and by the teachings of his church. 

The child whose thought and words are pure will 
be pure and clean and whole in body too. "Blessed 
are the pure in lieart for they shall see God" ; and it 
is tlie pure in heart who know that the body is to be 



MADISON OUR HOME 189 

kept as a liol}^ thing — a temple wherein the spirit of 
God may dwell. 

Slim Up What Madison Asks of Its Young People. 

Madison asks its young people to have a vision of 
their own future and of the future of the city. You 
are to grow up. Then you will be men and Avomen. 
What Avill you do? What work will you choose? 
What career will you follow? In any school room 
today are gathered the future business men, mer- 
chants, and manufacturers; the future professional 
people, doctors, lawyers, clergyanen, teachers, and 
priests; the future politicians, statesmen, mayors, al- 
dermen, governors, and congressmen ; the future par- 
ents, fathers and mothers with their own houses and 
children. Have you thought of this? What sort of 
persons do you mean to be? What character, w^hat 
intelligence, w^hat force do you mean to bring to 
that future? Do you mean to be one who earns his 
own living? Who stands on his own feet? Who 
makes his own way in the world? There are persons 
who seem never to be willing to play the part of a 
man in life's great game. They are moral invalids 
depending upon others to guide them. Sometimes 
they have to be carried as we see the weak borne about 
in chairs by the strong. 

You may have seen a large building propped up 
by timbers on the outside. One end of these beams 
rests upon the ground; the other pushes against the 
side of the building. These supports reinforce the 
walls and give them strength. But looking more 
closely at the matter we discover that some of these 



190 MADISON OUR HOME 

beams are bearing no weight at all; they do not even 
support their own weight. They are just leaning 
against the wall and adding to the weight which it 
carries. 

So in every community there are props and lean- 
ers. There are men and women of independence and 
force, upholding the weight of the community's enter- 
prises and business. And there are men and women 
who just lean against others, rest their weight upon 
the community. Instead of upholding society they 
expect society to uphold them. 

It would not be possible to say how many people 
there are of this kind in our community. But the 
Charities Association, the courts, the churches and the 
merchants know that we have our share of these weak, 
flabby folks, who lean against the wall so often as 
they can get one to lean on. 

The city of Maidson asks of its youths and maid- 
ens that they resolve to carry their own weight; and 
not only to carry their own weight but to add their 
strength and intelligence to the common stock; up- 
liolding and supoprting the city's life as true butresses 
support a wall. 

By such lives and such service will they requite 
the city for what it has done for them and answer the 
demands which she makes upon them. By such lives 
and such service will they best show their love and 
loyalty to the city. 

To thee our city. 

Here with loyal and heroic hearts 

Bind we our lives — 




—Copyright 1911, G. L. Abell. 

THE ALICE FREEMAN PALMER MEMORIAL. 
WELLESLEY COLLEGE, MASS. 



192 MADISON OUR HOME 

This lovely picture is a memorial to Mrs. Alice 
Freeman Palmer at Welleslev College, Mass. It sym- 
bolizes the relation between the pupil and her Alma 
Mater. The older woman is guarding, guiding and 
inspiring the ^^ounger. 

We may adopt this picture for our own and draw 
its appealing lesson to ourselves. Let the larger 
figure stand for our city and the smaller for its chil- 
dren and youths. The city is indeed the Alma Mater, 
a true ^'fostering mother'' to all her children. She 
loves them all; she cares for them; she is proud of 
them; she protects them with her strong arm; she pro- 
vides for them; she guides and inspires them. Your 
city is something more than a piece of ground; more 
than a net-work of streets and a mass of buildings. 
It is, as we have before said, a community with a 
mind and a purpose of its own. Your city is a greater 
thing than any man or woman who lives in it ; yes, a 
greater thing — more glorious and inspiring than all 
the people now living in it. For you knoAV that one 
day all the people now dwelling here will die or move 
away and their places will be filled by others. Years 
and generations will pass bringing ever new lives to 
replace the dead. But the city Avill survive; her 
span of life embraces all who have ever lived within 
her limits, from the earliest pioneer to the babe born 
yesterday. It readies out and stretches away into 
the future to embrace all those who shall come after 
us for a thousand years.. The city is a larger, more 
complete, more enduring individual within whose 
ample arms we all, as separate individuals, find our- 
selves at liome. ^j n 

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